Recyclable and recoverable catalytic systems based on Ionic liquids and clays: A green step towards sustainable development

Recovery of homogeneous catalysts from the reaction mixture and their recyclability represents a crucial challenge for industrial applications. A possible solution to this problem is to heterogenize the active homogeneous catalyst on to some solid support or to immobilize it in an appropriate phase system. Among the various inorganic supports, clays as a heterogeneous support material, have several economic and ecological advantages. Clay minerals occur abundantly in nature and their high surface area, sorptive and ion exchange properties have been exploited for various applications through decades. Further , the use of ionic liquid media for various catalytic reactions provides the advantages of ease of immobilization, recyclability and recoverability of the catalytic systems. The use of ionic liquid and clay based recyclable and recoverable catalytic systems for various organic transformations will be discussed.