One kind of novel ionic liquids (ILs) with a tertiary amino moiety and a quaternary ammonium group were synthesized and identified by FT-IR, 1H and 13C NMR. The elemental chemical state and basicity of ILs were determined by XPS and Hammett indicator method, respectively. Then the catalytic performance of these bifunctional catalysts was investigated in one-step synthesis of dimethyl carbonate (DMC) from ethylene oxide (EO), carbon dioxide and methanol. The best catalytic performance with 99% EO conversion and a maximum of 74% DMC selectivity was obtained using [N111,6N11]I as catalyst under optimized reaction conditions. And the catalyst could be reused for several times. Normally, stronger basicity could be obtained by altering the anions with different nucleophilicity in ILs and a better catalytic activity could be achieved correspondingly. A mechanism that both the ring opening of epoxide through nucleophilic attacks and the transesterification play an important role in the reaction was proposed based on experimental results.

Keywords Ionic liquid  Bi-functional  One-step synthesis  Dimethyl carbonate  Carbon dioxide

★★★☆☆ Catal Lett (2011) 141:339–346