Protection of aldehydes, hydroxy compounds with acetic anhydride in presence of sulfonic acid functionalized ionic liquid

Functionalized ionic liquids (FILs) are efficient ILs for the protection of various functionalities such as aldehydes, phenol, and alcohols with acetic anhydride under neat conditions. The attracted rising interest and the subject of active research in the field of catalysis is the variety of expanded applications and yet reports on ILs are still quickly increasing. This work reports a sulfonic acid functionalized ionic liquid is an environmentally friendly, easy handling, and reusable ionic liquid catalyst for the protection of aldehydes and phenols. The catalyst was characterized with different spectroscopic techniques which indicates the fabricated IL is matching with the reported methods. The catalyst can be recycled up to eight times without substantial loss in activity. Furthermore, no chromatographic separations were needed to obtain the desired products.