Acid Catalysis with Alkane/Water Microdroplets in Ionic Liquids

Ionic liquids are composed of an organic cation and a highly delocalized perfluorinated anion, which remain tight to each other neutral across the extended liquid framework. Here we show that n-alkanes in millimolar amounts enable sufficient ion charge separation release innate acidity ionic catalyze industrially relevant alkylation phenol, after generating homogeneous, self-stabilized, surfactant-free microdroplets (1–5 ?m). This extremely mild simple protocol circumvents any external additive or potential degradation can be water, spontaneously generates (ca. 3 ?m) catalyzes Brönsted rather than Lewis acid reactions. These results open new avenues not only use as catalysts/solvents but also preparation surfactant-free, well-defined microemulsions.