8 Commercial Production of Ionic Liquids
197
Fig. 8.1 (a) Glass reactors, batch size, 20 kg (© IOLITEC, 2019). (b) Stainless steel reactor,
batch size 1 metric ton, operating pressure up to 10 bar (© IOLITEC, 2019). (c) Continuous-flow
microreaction technology, 50 kg per day (© IOLITEC, 2019)
Alkylation of Phosphine Derivatives
At the present time, phosphonium-based ionic liquids are underrepresented in the
scientific literature compared with imidazolium-based ionic liquids. Phosphoniumbased salts (many of them are commonly defined as ionic liquids) are used in commercial processes, such as phase-transfer catalysts or as process chemicals in the production of semiconductors. Consequently, these materials are already produced on a
commercial scale, but the corresponding knowledge is often not publicly available.
For example, substances of the type PR 3 R
-Cl (R is butyl or hexyl; R
is hexyl, octyl,
decyl, or dodecyl) can be synthesized in autoclaves from pyrophoric trialkylphosphine and the corresponding alkyl halide in acetonitrile or toluene under an inert
197
Fig. 8.1 (a) Glass reactors, batch size, 20 kg (© IOLITEC, 2019). (b) Stainless steel reactor,
batch size 1 metric ton, operating pressure up to 10 bar (© IOLITEC, 2019). (c) Continuous-flow
microreaction technology, 50 kg per day (© IOLITEC, 2019)
Alkylation of Phosphine Derivatives
At the present time, phosphonium-based ionic liquids are underrepresented in the
scientific literature compared with imidazolium-based ionic liquids. Phosphoniumbased salts (many of them are commonly defined as ionic liquids) are used in commercial processes, such as phase-transfer catalysts or as process chemicals in the production of semiconductors. Consequently, these materials are already produced on a
commercial scale, but the corresponding knowledge is often not publicly available.
For example, substances of the type PR 3 R
-Cl (R is butyl or hexyl; R
is hexyl, octyl,
decyl, or dodecyl) can be synthesized in autoclaves from pyrophoric trialkylphosphine and the corresponding alkyl halide in acetonitrile or toluene under an inert