Kinetics Study of the Ketalization Reaction of Cyclohexanone with Glycol Using Brønsted Acidic Ionic Liquids as Catalysts

It is remarkable that Brønsted acidic ionic liquids (BAILs) have several unique advantages in the acid-catalysis reaction, which avoids the technical issues raised from mineral acids. The kinetics for the ketalization of cyclohexanone with glycol using BAILs as catalysts was therefore studied for the first time. The effects of various parameters such as kind of BAILs, temperature, catalyst loading, and molar ratio of the reactants on the conversion of cyclohexanone were examined in detail, and a pseudohomogeneous (PH) kinetic model was used successfully to correlate the experimental data in the temperature range from 313.15 to 343.15 K. The kinetic parameters such as reaction rate constant, activation energy, and chemical equilibrium constant then were proposed and utilized to interpret the catalytic activities of the BAILs catalysts. It was also validated from the comparison of catalytic performance among the BAILs, H2SO4, and solid resin that the BAILs were considered to be environmentally friendly and high efficient catalysts, and were suggested to replace mineral and solid acids in the synthesis of ketal.