Acid Catalysis with Alkane/Water Microdroplets in Ionic Liquids

[EN] Ionic liquids are composed of an organic cation and a highly delocalized perfluorinated anion, which remain tight to each other and neutral across the extended liquid framework. Here we show that n-alkanes in millimolar amounts enable a sufficient ion charge separation to release the innate aci...

ver descrição completa

Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Greco, Rossella, Lloret, Vicent, Rivero Crespo, Miguel Ángel, Hirsch, Andreas, Doménech-Carbó, Antonio, Abellán Sáez, Gonzalo, Leyva Perez, Antonio|||0000-0003-1063-5811
Formato: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2021
País:España
Recursos:Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV)
Repositorio:RiuNet. Repositorio Institucional de la Universitat Politécnica de Valéncia
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:riunet.upv.es:10251/189728
Acesso em linha:https://riunet.upv.es/handle/10251/189728
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:Acid catalysis
Ionic liquids
Alkane microemulsions
Water microdroplets
Friedel-Crafts reaction
Descrição
Resumo:[EN] Ionic liquids are composed of an organic cation and a highly delocalized perfluorinated anion, which remain tight to each other and neutral across the extended liquid framework. Here we show that n-alkanes in millimolar amounts enable a sufficient ion charge separation to release the innate acidity of the ionic liquid and catalyze the industrially relevant alkylation of phenol, after generating homogeneous, self-stabilized, and surfactant-free microdroplets (1-5 mu m). This extremely mild and simple protocol circumvents any external additive or potential ionic liquid degradation and can be extended to water, which spontaneously generates microdroplets (ca. 3 mu m) and catalyzes Bronsted rather than Lewis acid reactions. These results open new avenues not only in the use of ionic liquids as acid catalysts/solvents but also in the preparation of surfactant-free, well-defined ionic liquid microemulsions.