The Etherification Of Benzyl Halide

The study of the etherification of benzyl halides catalyzed by transition metal salts and ionic liquids with transition metal salts, and the optimization of these processes were conducted in this paper.First, lots of transition metal salts which can be used to catalyse etherification of benzyl chloride had been found. Compared to other synthetic methods, the results showed that ZnSO4 and FeSO4 were much better than other transition metal salts, not only the high yield and high rate, but also the properties of readily availability, low cost, and environmentally benign.Secondly, the effects of different factors were investigated to find the optimum conditions, which were as follows. ZnSO4:n (benzyl chloride):n ZnSO4:n CH3OH=1:0.7:13, reaction temperature was 106℃, and the reaction time was 7h, under these conditons, a high 93.7% yield was obtained; FeSO4:n (benzyl chloride):n Feso4:n CH3OH=1:0.8:13, reaction temperature was 104℃, and the reaction time was 9h, under these conditons, a high 92.8% yield was obtained.Thirdly, based on the optimum conditions, the effect of etherification of benzyl chloride with different activity alcohol were researched in this paper. Great results were obtained when it was applied to a series of benzyl halide.Finally, the ionic liquids as green solvents and catalysts, with transition metal salts which were used to catalyse etherification, could improve the yield and shorten reaction time, it also could be repeated recycled. We found that the conventional imidazolium ionic liquids, 2,2'-biimidazolum ionic liquid and PEG-DAIL could be used to catalyse etherification with transition metal salts, and did a good job, especially the 2,2'-biimidazolium ionic liquids with copper. After a single-factor analysis of experiments, the optimum conditions were as follows: nIL:nbenzylchloride=0.3:1, reaction temperature was 95℃, and the reaction time was 4h, under these conditions, a high 92.7% yield was obtained.