Alkylation of Hydroquinone with tert‐Butyl Alcohol over Bis[(perfluoroalkyl)sulfonyl]imides Supported on MCM‐41.

Abstract

Bis[(perfluoroalkyl)sulfonyl]imides [HN(SO 2 R f ) 2 , and R f represents the perfluorinated alkyl group] supported on MCM-41 were synthesized and characterized by XRD, FTIR, SEM, TGA and N 2 -adsorption techniques. The supported catalysts, HN(SO 2 R f ) 2 /MCM-41, were used as the catalysts for the tert-butylation of hydroquinone (HQ) with tert-butyl alcohol (TBA) in the liquid phase. A high yield (52.0%) of 2-tert-butyl hydroquinone (TBHQ) could be obtained in the presence of 5 mol% HN(SO 2 C 4 F 9 ) 2 /MCM-41 under the optimized reaction conditions and the heterogeneous catalyst could be recycled at least 6 times without substantial loss of activity.