Skip to main content
Log in

Ionic liquid mediated esterification of alcohol with acetic acid

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Frontiers of Chemical Engineering in China Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Highly efficient esterification of alcohols with acetic acid by using a Brønsted acidic ionic liquid, i.e., 1-methyl-2-pyrrolidonium hydrogen sulfate ([Hnmp]HSO4), as catalyst has been realized. The turnover numbers (TON) were able to reach up to 11000 and turnover frequency (TOF) was 846. The catalytic system is suitable for the esterification of long chain aliphatic alcohols, benzyl alcohol and cyclohexanol with good yields of esters. The procedure of separating the product and catalyst is simple, and the catalyst could be reused. [Hnmp]HSO4 had much weaker corrosiveness than H2SO4. The corrosive rate of H2SO4 was 400 times more than that of [Hnmp]HSO4 to stainless steel.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Larock R C. Comprehensive Organic Transformations. New York: John Wiley and Sons Inc, 1999

    Google Scholar 

  2. Forbes D C, Weaver K J. Brønsted acidic ionic liquids: the dependence on water of the Fischer esterification of acetic acid and ethanol. J Mol Catal A: Chem, 2004, 214: 129–132

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Welton T. Room-temperature ionic liquids: solvents for synthesis and catalysis. Chem Rev, 1999, 99: 2071–2083

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Wasserscheid P, Welton T, eds. Ionic Liquids in Synthesis. Weinheim: Wiley-VCH, 2003

    Google Scholar 

  5. Sheldon R. Catalytic reactions in ionic liquids. Chem Commun, 2001, 2399–2407

  6. Holbrey J D, Seddon K R. Ionic liquid. Clean Prod Process, 1999, 1: 223–236

    Google Scholar 

  7. Zhang S J, Lv X M. Ionic liquid-from foundational research to industrial application. Beijing: Science Publication, 2006

    Google Scholar 

  8. Judeh Z M A, Shen H Y, Chi B C, Feng L C, Selvasothi S. A facile and efficient nucleophilic displacement reaction at room temperature in ionic liquids. Tetrahedron Lett, 2002, 43: 9381–9384

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Deng Y Q, Shi F, Beng J J, Qiao K. Ionic liquid as a green catalytic reaction medium for esterifications. J Mol Catal A: Chem, 2001, 165: 33–36

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Cole A C, Jensen J L, Ntai I, Tran K L T, Weaver K J, Forbes D C, Davis J H, Novel Brønsted acidic ionic liquids and their use as dual solvent-catalysts. J Am Chem Soc, 2002, 124: 5962–5963

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Zhu H P, Yang F, Tang J, He M Y. Brønsted acidic ionic liquid 1-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate: a green catalyst and recyclable medium for esterification. Green Chem, 2003, 5: 38–39

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Gui J Z, Cong X H, Liu D, Zhang X, Hu Z, Sun Z. Novel Brønsted acidic ionic liquid as efficient and reusable catalyst system for esterification. Catal Commun, 2004, 5: 473–477

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yanxiong Fang.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Zhou, B., Fang, Y., Gu, H. et al. Ionic liquid mediated esterification of alcohol with acetic acid. Front. Chem. Eng. China 3, 211–214 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11705-009-0054-3

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11705-009-0054-3

Keywords

Navigation