Some certain imidazolium ionic liquids (ILs) were attempted to extract valuable organic components in direct coal liquefaction residue (DCLR) and the possible mechanism involved in the extraction process of DCLR was proposed. The effective extraction was attributed to fracture of hydrogen bonds network in DCLR when the ILs dissolve DCLR. Moreover, the results showed that different IL solvents can extract various components. Thus, the selective extraction was realized and this provided a new pathway for extracting desired valuable components from DCLR. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.