The catalytic performance of some quaternary ammonium salts for the liquid phase reaction of butanol and hydrochloric acid at different conditions was studied experimentally and compared with the traditional catalyst （ZnCl2）. The organic ammonium catalysts investigated include ionic liquids N-butyl-N-methyl imidazolium fluoborate （[BMIM][BF4]） and N-butyl-N-methylimidazolium chloride （[BMIM]Cl） as well as hydrochloric salts of N-methylimidazol （[HMIM]Cl）, pyridine （[HPy]Cl） and triethylamine （[HEt3N]Cl）. It is shown that the intrinsic catalytic performance of all organic ammonium salts except [HEt3N]Cl is slightly superior to ZnCl2, while the selectivity of butyl chloride is nearly at the same level around 96%. The conversion of butanol increases slightly with temperature and the catalyst amount added while the variation of selectivity is not obvious. Based on the recycle experiments, the ionic liquids as catalyst for the reaction of butanol and hydrochloric acid can be used more than 5 times, which suggests great potential of using ionic liquids as novel catalyst for such reactions.
Vapor pressure values of binary systems water ＋ ethanol, water ＋ ionic liquid 1-propyl-3- methylimidazolium bromide （[PMIM] [Br]）, ethanol ＋ [PMIM] [Br] and ternary system water ＋ ethanol ＋ [PMIM] [Br] at different temperatures were measured by using a modified boiling point method in various concentrations of （16.66%, 33.7%）, （17.4%, 33.9%） and （16.5%, 32%） mass percent of ionic liquid, respectively. The experimental vapor pressures of solvent were well correlated by the Antoine-type equation, and the overall average absolute deviation （AAD） was found to be 0.39%. The experimental results for mixtures containing ionic liquid indicate that the vapor pressure of the solvents can be decreased noticeably to different extent due to the affinity difference between ionic liquid and solvent, which is similar to the salt effect of common inorganic salts. As a result, ionic liquid may find industrial applications in extractive distillations for the system with a low separation factor or even for an azeotropic mixture.
