Dealkylation and Disproportionation of Long Chain Alkylaromatics over Immobilized Ionic Liquid Catalysts

Long chain alkylaromatics, such as n-dodecylbenzene,  are important starting points for the production of surfactants  and form the basis for the production of many biodegradeable detergents.   It this presentation we use n-dodecylbenzene disproportionation as a probe for acid activity and selectivity in ionic liquid catalyzed dealkylation and disporportionation of long chain alkylaromatics.  The ionic liquid catalysts used in this study comprise ionic liquid – functionalized high surface area silica materials including MCM-41.  The study showed that AlCl₃-based ionic liquids supported on silicas and MCM-41 are active catalytic materials for alkylbenzene (DDB) transformation (mainly disproportionation and dealkylation) at low reaction temperatures.  We also concluded that the catalytic dealkylation of n-dodecylbenzene requires a high density of very strong acid sites.