Dialkylimidazolium miscibility

Despite all the advantages of this process, one main limitation is the continuous catalyst carry-over by the products, with the need to deactivate it and to dispose of wastes. One way to optimize catalyst consumption and waste disposal was to operate the reaction in a biphasic system. The first difficulty was to choose a good solvent. N,N -Dialkylimidazolium chloroaluminate ionic liquids proved to be the best candidates. These can easily be prepared on an industrial scale, are liquid at the reaction temperature, and are very poorly miscible with the products. They play the roles both of the catalyst solvent and of the co-catalyst, and their Lewis acidities can be adjusted to obtain the best performances. The solubility of butene in these solvents is high enough to stabilize the active nickel species (Table 5.3-3), the nickel... 

Heretofore, ionic liquids incorporating the 1,3-dialkylimidazolium cation have been preferred as they interact weakly with the anions and are more thermally stable than the quaternary ammonium cations. Recently, the physical properties of 1,2,3,4-tetraalkylimidazolium- and 1,3-dialkylimidazolium-containing ionic liquids in combination with various hydrophobic and hydrophilic anions have been systematically investigated (36,41). The melting point, thermal stability, density, viscosity, and other physical properties have been correlated with alkyl chain length of the imidazolium cation and the nature of the anion. The anion mainly determines water miscibility and has the most dramatic effect on the properties. An increase in the alkyl chain length of the cations from butyl to octyl, for example, increases the hydrophobicity and viscosity of the ionic liquid, whereas densities and surface tension values decrease, as expected. 

All 1,3-dialkylimidazolium ILs reported to date are hygroscopic, and their miscibility with water is largely controlled by the nature of the anion. While those salts containing the nitrate, chloride and perchlorate anions are usually miscible with water in all proportions, those associated with hexafluorophosphate and bis(tri-fluoromethane) sulfonylamidate anions are almost completely immiscible with water [93]. Interestingly, the miscibility with water of those containing the tetraf lu-oroborate anion is temperature dependent (Fig. 3.5-7) [36]. It is also known that an increase of the N-alkyl chain lengths increases the hydrophobicity for a series of 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate ILs [94] The miscibility of water with ILs can be increased by the addition of short-chain alcohols [95] or diminished by the addihon of salts (salting-out effect) [96]. 

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