Honeycomb-structured solid acid catalysts fabricated via the swelling-induced self-assembly of acidic poly(ionic liquid)s for highly efficient hydrolysis reactions

The development of heterogeneous acid catalysts with higher activity than homogeneous acid catalysts is critical and still challenging. In this study, acidic poly(ionic liquid)s with swelling ability (SAPILs) were designed and synthesized via the free radical copolymerization of ionic liquid monomers, sodium p-styrenesulfonate, and crosslinkers, followed by acidification. The 31P nuclear magnetic resonance chemical shifts of adsorbed trimethylphosphine oxide indicated that the synthesized SAPILs presented moderate and single acid strength. The thermogravimetric analysis results in the temperature range of 300–345 °C revealed that the synthesized SAPILs were more stable than the commercial resin Amberlite IR-120(H) (245 °C). Cryogenic scanning electron microscopy testing demonstrated that SAPILs presented unique three-dimensional (3D) honeycomb structure in water, which was ascribed to the swelling-induced self-assembly of the molecules. Moreover, we used SAPILs with micron-sized honeycomb structure in water as catalysts for the hydrolysis of cyclohexyl acetate to cyclohexanol, and determined that their catalytic activity was much higher than that of homogeneous acid catalysts. The equilibrium concentrations of all reaction components inside and outside the synthesized SAPILs were quantitatively analyzed using a series of simulated reaction mixtures. Depending on the reaction mixture, the concentration of cyclohexyl acetate inside SAPIL-1 was 7.5–23.3 times higher than that outside of it, which suggested the high enrichment ability of SAPILs for cyclohexyl acetate. The excellent catalytic performance of SAPILs was attributed to their 3D honeycomb structure in water and high enrichment ability for cyclohexyl acetate, which opened up new avenues for designing highly efficient heterogeneous acid catalysts that could eventually replace conventional homogeneous acid catalysts.