Abstract: Metal-based ionic liquid AmimCl/ZnCl₂ was synthesized and its structure and acidity were characterized with FT-IR spectroscopy. The denitrogenation performance of the ionic liquid was investigated using Fushun shale diesel oil containing 0.52% basic nitrogen as feedstock. Experimental results showed that the ionic liquid exhibited good denitrogenation performance and 83.78% basic N-extraction efficiency was achieved under the optimized operation conditions, i.e., temperature of 30℃, 1:7 (mass ratio) IL:oil, reaction time of 20 min and settling time of 2 h. In addition, the basic N-removal efficiency of the ionic liquid can still remain 52% after four recycles.