Application of organic solvent nanofiltration to separation of ionic liquids and products from ionic liquid mediated reactions

Membrane processes for product purification and ionic liquid recycle are proposed and demonstrated for ionic liquid-mediated reactions. The membrane rejections for several ionic liquids in the common solvents methanol, toluene and ethyl acetate were determined for the STARMEM(TM) (STARMEM is a trademark of W.R. Grace & Co-Conn). Series of organic solvent stable nanofiltration membranes. STARMEM(TM) membrane 122 was employed to recycle the ionic liquids CYPHOS IL 101 and ECOENG500 from synthetic post-reaction mixtures typical of those arising in Suzuki cross-coupling reactions. STARMEM(TM) membranes showed good rejections for CYPHOS IL 101 and ECOENG500 in methanol and ethyl acetate, and STARMEM(TM) 122 gave a consistently good separation performance for recycling CYPHOS IL 101 and ECOENG500 from synthetic post-reaction mixtures.