A novel reaction of cyclization of 1-dodecene to cyclododecane with high selectivity, especially under moderate pressure, is found in ethanol buffered chloroaluminate ionic liquids with easy separation of product duo to the immiscibility with ionic liquids.

★★★★☆ K. Qiao, Y. Deng / Tetrahedron Letters 44 (2003) 2191–2193.

Hydroesterification of tert-butyl alcohol with ethanol catalyzed by transition metal triphenylphosphine complexes in the presence of p-toluenesulfonic acid was investigated using room temperature ionic liquids as the reaction medium at 373–413 K and 3–6 MPa of CO. In comparison with the organic solvents as reaction medium, higher conversion was achieved and ethyl tert-valerate could be directly formed in the ionic liquid medium. The products could be separated from the ionic liquids easily due to their immiscibility in this medium.

★★★☆☆ Kun Qiao and Youquan Deng. New J. Chem., 2002, 26, 667–670.

Alkylations of benzene with dodecene and/or chloromethanes in the chloroaluminate room temperature ionic liquid modified with HCl as catalysts have been investigated. Different product distributions and enhanced activity, were respectively observed for these two alkylation reactions. This may be attributed to the superacidity of the ionic liquid induced by the presence of HCl.

★★★☆☆ Keywords: Ionic liquids; Alkylation; Benzene; Superacidity

★★★☆☆ K. Qiao, Y. Deng. Journal of Molecular Catalysis A: Chemical 171 (2001) 81–84.