Combining POMswith ILs should ease the design of some interesting
materials. Herein, the reusability of PW catalyst was improved by its
pairing with organic IL cation instead of supporting it on the mineral
carriers. POM–ILs combining the advantageous characteristics of solid
acids and mineral acids are designed to replace traditional mineral liquid
acids, such as sulfuric acid and hydrochloric acid, in organic reaction.
The [QPS]PW, synthesized by pairing of sulfonated isoquinoline cation
with PW anion, was used as a novel thermoregulated recoverable homogeneous
catalyst for biodiesel production. Catalyst/product separation
is very simple and the catalyst was recovered upon cooling of the
reaction mixture and reused several times without obvious loss of its
catalytic activity. The present catalyst can be used in single step process
for biodiesel production from feedstock with a high FFA and moisture
content. Certainly, many more catalytically active POM–ILs needs to be
identified. The efforts to explore them are underway in our laboratory