High-efficacy glycerol acetalization with silica gel immobilized Brønsted acid ionic liquid catalysts—preparation and comprehending the counter-anion effect on the catalytic activity

Abstract

Imidazolium sulfonate zwitterions (ZIs) with unconventional counter-anions were used to fabricate a series of mesoporous silica-gel-immobilized Brønsted acid ionic liquid (SG@BAIL) nanocatalysts. In comparison to traditional heterogeneous catalysts, these immobilised heterogeneous catalysts have the advantage of ionic-liquid acidic sites and the advantage of solid silica gel as a support, increasing their catalytic activities. The catalysts were analysed using a series of physicochemical techniques and their catalytic efficiencies were evaluated during the acetalization of glycerol (G) with benzaldehyde (B). The influence of the counter-anions present in the SG@BAIL catalysts was initially investigated in terms of the percentage conversion vs. the reaction time at a particular temperature. Furthermore, different parametric studies relating to the acetalization reaction were carried out based on the catalyst with the maximum activity. SG-[C₃ImC₃SO₃H][OTf] was observed to have the highest catalytic performance and durability during ecofriendly acetal synthesis, with the highest selectivity for 1,3-dioxane. Parametric studies of the acetalization reaction were carried out, and the catalyst showed noteworthy performance at 90 °C, showing 94% conversion in an equimolar reactant mixture under solvent-free conditions with 0.03 wt% catalyst loading in a short time span of 75 min. In addition, kinetics modelling was performed using reversible second-order kinetics to calculate the forward rate constants at various temperatures. The activation energy of the reaction was determined using the Arrhenius equation, and the overall activation energy was 69.33 kJ mol⁻¹. These investigations have demonstrated the excellent potential of SG@BAIL catalysts for practical application in the glycerol acetalization process.