Scalable synthesis of ionic liquids: comparison of performances of microstructured and stirred batch reactors

Abstract

A range of alkylpyridinium bromide ionic liquids have been synthesized in a stirred reactor at multigram scale and characterized by physical methods (viscosity, conductivity, melting point, electrochemical window, and water content). One ionic liquid, octylpyridinium bromide, was chosen to be synthesized in both macro and reduced scale reactors, in order to compare its performance and to afford evidence of the advantages of a cross channel micro reactor (channel width = 1 mm) compared to a stirred reactor.