Metal nanoparticles in ionic liquid-cosolvent biphasic systems as active catalysts for acetylene hydrochlorination

Ionic liquid (IL)-stabilized metal nanoparticles (NPs) have attracted increased attention as novel catalysts for various reactions due to their excellent stability and high activity. However, the high viscosity of ILs limits their applications. Here, for the first time, we reported an NPs@IL-cosolvent liquid–liquid biphasic system for metal NPs catalysis. The NPs were successfully confined to IL phase, and abundant IL droplets containing NPs were generated under the reactant flow. The NPs@IL droplets served as microreactors for the catalysis; while the low viscosity organic phase enabled the rapid mass transfer of substances. The biphasic system exhibited improved performance for acetylene hydrochlorination than that of the pure IL system. An acetylene conversion of 98% and a selectivity of 99.5% were achieved along with a 90% decrease on IL usage. The tolerable gas hourly space velocity in the biphasic system for a satisfactory conversion was almost double that of the pure IL system. © 2018 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J , 64: 2536–2544, 2018