Janusz Nowicki

Ionic liquids derived from organosuperbases: en route to superionic liquids

Interest in ionic liquids with guanidine, amidine and other superbasic cations has grown markedly in recent years. The syntheses, characterization and properties of protic and quaternary alkylated salts based on cyclic or acyclic guanidine and amidine derivatives have been described in detail. By modifying the anion or the cation, a wide range of properties of superbasic ionic liquids can be tuned, including viscosity, melting point, density, conductivity, solubility, liquid range, and thermal and hydrolytic stability. They are promising solvents for electrochemical, photovoltaic and various synthetic applications, in particular as specific catalysts. Owing to their specific properties, superbasic ionic liquids can be used in applications of great industrial importance such as CO2, SO2 or COS chemisorption.

Dual functionality of amphiphilic 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium hydrogen sulfate ionic liquids: surfactants with catalytic function

A series of amphiphilic 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium hydrogen sulfate ionic liquids were synthesized. Acidic hydrogen sulfate ionic liquids with the alkyl chains C6–C14 are characterized by good surface properties. Their surface properties (adsorption and micellization parameters, degree of ionization of micelles, Krafft temperatures and thermodynamic parameters) were determined. Synthesized ionic liquids were applied as a co-catalyst in an oxirane ring opening reaction in epoxidized fatty acid methyl esters (FAME). Their co-catalytic activities were determined and discussed as a function of their structure and surface properties. It was found that the co-catalytic properties, both conversion and selectivity, of alkylimidazolium hydrogen sulfate ionic liquids noticeably depended on the alkyl chain lengths, and in consequence their properties.

Synthesis of Fatty Acid Esters of Selected Higher Polyols Over Homogeneous Metallic Catalysts

Studies on the synthesis of esters of natural origin fatty acids (oleic acid) and a branched synthetic isostearic acid derived from oleic acid with commercially available selected higher polyols in the presence of homogeneous metallic catalysts have been carried out. The effects of the synthesis temperature, molar ratio and the catalysts amount have also been studied. It was shown that higher fatty acid conversion and selectivity to tri- and tetraesters were obtained for organotin catalyst Fascat 2003, which was used as the esterification catalyst. Anti-wear test confirmed good tribological properties of the obtained esters.

Statistical optimization of the synthesis of plant-derived fatty acid esters of TMP over homogeneous organometallic tin catalyst

Abstract A class of very important industrial-grade biolubricants was synthesized from plant-derived fatty acids (oleic and isostearic acid) by direct esterification of trimethylolpropane according to novel effective and high selective method using Sn bis(2-ethylhexanoate) as catalyst. Model transesterification reactions were performed with oleic and isostearic acids to optimize the reaction conditions to obtain maximum content of TMP triesters. Used specific homogeneous Sn catalyst allows to obtain TMP esters with very high content of triesters, above of 94 wt% without deep vacuum purifying distillation. Both TMP esters were evaluated for their physicochemical and tribological properties using ASTM standards. Both TMP esters exhibited high viscosity indexes and excellent low temperature properties.