Temperature-responsive ionic liquids (ILs), their fundanmental behaviors, and catalytic applications were introduced, especially the concepts of upper critical solution temperature (UCST) and lower critical solution temperature (LCST). It is described that, during a catalytic reaction, they form a homogeneous mixture with the reactants and products at reaction temperature but separate from them afterward at ambient conditions. It is shown that this behavior offers an effective alternative approach to overcome gas/liquid-solid interface mass transfer limitations in many catalytic transformations. It should be noted that IL-based thermomorphic systems are rarely elaborated until now, especially in the field of catalytic applications. The aim of this article is to provide a comprehensive review about thermomorphic mixtures of an IL with HO and/or organic compounds. Special focus is laid on their temperature dependence concerning UCST and LCST behavior, including systems with conventional ILs, metal-containing ILs, polymerized ILs, as well as the thermomorphic behavior induced via host-guest complexation. A wide range of applications using thermoregulated IL systems in chemical catalytic reactions as well as enzymatic catalysis were also demonstrated in detail. The conclusion is drawn that, due to their highly attractive behavior, thermoregulated ILs have already and will find more applications, not only in catalysis but also in other areas.

The organic carboxylic acid coordinated monomeric peroxoniobate-based ionic liquids (ILs) [TBA]­[NbO­(OH)2(R)] (TBA = tetrabutylammonium; R = lactic acid (LA), glycolic acid (GLY), malic acid (MA)) were prepared and fully characterized by elemental analysis, NMR, IR, Raman, TGA, 93Nb NMR, and HRMS. These IL catalysts exhibited not only high catalytic activity for the epoxidation of olefins under very mild reaction conditions, as the turnover frequency of [TBA]­[NbO­(OH)2(LA)] reached up to 110 h–1, but also satisfactory recyclability in the epoxidation by using only 1 equiv of hydrogen peroxide as an oxidant. Meanwhile, this work revealed that the ILs underwent structural transformation from [NbO­(OH)2(R)]− to [Nb­(O–O)2(R)]− (R = LA, GLY, MA) in the presence of H2O2 by a subsequent activity evaluation, characterization, and first-principles calculations. Moreover, the organic carboxylic acid coordinated monomeric peroxoniobate-based ILs were investigated using density functional theory (DFT) calculations, which identified that [Nb­(O–O)2LA]− was more advantageous than [Nb­(O–O)2(OOH)2]− for the epoxidation of olefins. Due to the coordination between the α-hydroxy acids and the monomeric peroxoniobate anions, the functionalized ILs can efficiently catalyze the epoxidation of a wide range of olefins and allylic alcohols under very mild conditions. Additionally, the effect of solvents on the reaction is illustrated. It was found that methanol can lower the epoxidation barriers by forming a hydrogen bond with a peroxo ligand attached to the niobium center.

This work reports new kinds of monomeric peroxoniobate anion functionalized ionic liquids (ILs) designated as [A+]­[NbO­(O-O)­(OH)2] (A+ = tetrapropylammonium, tetrabutylammonium, or tetrahexylammonium cation), which have been prepared and characterized by elemental analysis, HRMS, NMR, IR, TGA, etc. With hydrogen peroxide as an oxidant, these ILs exhibited excellent catalytic activity and recyclability in the epoxidation of various allylic alcohols under solvent-free and ice bath conditions. Interestingly, subsequent activity tests and catalyst characterization together with first-principles calculations indicated that the parent [NbO­(O-O)­(OH)2]− anion has been oxidized into the anion [Nb­(O-O)2(OOH)2]− in the presence of H2O2, which constitutes the real catalytically active species during the reaction; this anion has higher activity in comparison to the analogous peroxotungstate anion. Moreover, the epoxidation process of the substrate (allylic alcohol) catalyzed by [Nb­(O-O)2(OOH)2]− was explored at the atomic level by virtue of DFT (density functional theory) calculations, identifying that it is more favorable to occur through a hydrogen bond mechanism, in which the peroxo group of [Nb­(O-O)2(OOH)2]− serves as the adsorption site to anchor the substrate OH group by forming a hydrogen bond, while OOH as the active oxygen species attacks the CC bond in substrates to produce the corresponding epoxide. This is the first example of the highly efficient epoxidation of allylic alcohols using a peroxoniobate anion as a catalyst.

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