WANG Ling, GAO Bao-jiao*

(Department of Chemical Engineering, North University of China, Taiyuan 030051, Shanxi, China)

Abstract : N-alkylation reaction of N-butyl phthalimidewas conducted with 1-bromobutane using phthalimide as the reagent of nucleophilic substitutionin the precence of the new quaternary phosphonium-type triphase catalysts. The catalysis effects were mainly examined on the three kinds of quaternary phosphonium-type triphase catalysts QP-CPSwhich have spacer arms with different lengths. The experimental results show that the three quaternary phosphonium-type triphase catalysts QP-CPS have produced obviously catalytic action as for N-butyl phthalimide. The catalyst QP-CPS with a longer spacer arm has higher catalytic activity. The conversion of 1-bromobutane can reach 87% when the amount of catalyst was 4mmol, at a reaction temperature of 90℃for 12 h. The effects of various factors on the phase-transfer catalysis reaction were also examined as for QP-CA-CPS, the results indicate that an organic solvent with stronger polarity has higher catalytic activity, and the volume ratio of organic phase to water phase and stirring speed have great effects on phase transfer catalysis.

Key words:  Phthalimide; N-alkylation; Triphase catalyst; Quaternary phosphenium salt; Polystyrene; Spacer arm

E-mail: gaobaojiao@126.com.

Journal of Molecular Catalysis, Vol. 24, Issue 2, 2010, 105-111