A convenient approach for the synthesis of 1,3,5-trioxanes under solvent-free conditions at room temperature

A series of environmentally benign bis-SO3H-functionalized Bronsted acidic ionic liquids were synthesized by using aliphatic polyamines and 1,3-propanesultone as the source chemicals. These ionic liquids acted as efficient inexpensive and recyclable catalysts for cyclotrimerization of aliphatic aldehydes at room temperature under solvent-free conditions. The reactions proceeded smoothly with good to excellent isolated yields (66.9-97.6 %=) and were generally complete in 1.5 h when the amount of ionic liquids was 0.1 mol%. The ionic liquids could be recovered readily and reused five times without any significant loss in their catalytic activity.