Ionic Liquids in Organic Synthesis Effects on Rate and Selectivity

Ionic Liquids in Organic Synthesis Effects on Rate and Selectivity 

An incredibly large number of papers have appeared in the last few years about organic reactions and catalyzed processes carried out in ionic liquids, demonstrating that these salts can be used with success as solvents for organic reactions. It has often been claimed that they are able to increase both the reactivity and/or selectivity of a number of processes [1]. Unfortunately, little is known about how the use of an ionic liquid can affect the reactivity of solute species. 

Ionic Liquids in Synthesis, Second Edition. P. Wasserscheid and T. Welton (Eds.) Copyright ( ) 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlags GmbH Co. KGaA, Weinheim ISBN 978-3-527-31239-9 

Moreover, depending upon the cation and anion structure and size, the presence of polar and non-polar domains inside the liquid, which may affect the solvation and diffusion of ions and neutral molecules, can arise [7]. The situation is made 

The extent of mixing and the distribution of solutes in ionic liquids depend, therefore, on the relative solute-solute and solute-solvent interactions, which can have significant consequences on chemical reactivity and stabihty. In many ionic liquids, water-sensitive catalysts and chemical reactions are less sensitive to water compared with the situation in organic solvents because water dispersed throughout the ionic liquid cannot act like bulk water. 

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