The use of ionic liquids as a phase transfer catalyst for the dialkylation of an active methylene compound / Nur Liyana Shamsudeen

A study on the use of ionic liquids as a phase transfer catalysts on the dialkylation of
methylacetoacetate has given a new finding for the development of environmentally
friendly catalysts. The structures of these dialkylated compounds were elucidated using
modern spectroscopic techniques such as IR and NMR. Studies on the dialkylation of
methylacetoatate with different elecrophiles had been carried out in the presence of
different ionic liquids. The reaction mixture was left stirring overnight at room
temperature under nitrogen gas, N2 until all compounds dissolved. The result showed that
ionic liquid which was 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate, [bmim]BF4
-
as
the most successful phase transfer catalyst for the dialkylation of methylacetoacetate as
compared to 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate, [bmim]PF6
-
. With
higher percentage yield obtained from ionic liquid of [bmim]BF4
-
, it certainly showed
that this ionic liquid has potential for further investigations in other chemical
transformations.