Newly designed flow reactor as an original method of synthesis of ionic liquids by ion-exchange reactions

Abstract Optimization of chemical reactions is often costly and requires a significant investment in both materials and time. The solution to this type of difficulty may be the use of continuous flow systems. With the use of the newly designed continuous flow system, the method of synthesizing ionic liquids (ILs) by ion exchange was optimized. The flow rate of the substrates and the selection of the packing of the column in which the reactions were carried out (random packing or a chemical compound in the form of a solid, which was the source of the anion exchanged) were also optimized. The purity of the obtained ionic liquids and the progress of the reaction was determined using ion chromatography. Additionally, for the ionic liquids, which were the starting compounds for the ion exchange reaction, the basic physicochemical properties were determined, thus extending the data library available for chemical compounds belonging to the group of ionic liquids.