Quaternary ammonium salt functionalized polyetheretherketone fiber: A novel fibrous material for phase-transfer catalysis

Abstract

Herein, the commercially available ultra-high-strength textile fiber polyetheretherketone (PEEK) was directionally functionalized by afterward immobilization procedures to graft quaternary ammonium salts into its surface layer, and the resulted fibrous materials were capable of acting as the heterogeneous-supported phase-transfer catalysts were presented in the etherification of halogenated nitrobenzenes for the synthesis of nitroanisoles. The acquiring fiber samples from different processes were observed and characterized detailedly by diversified technologies of morphologies, mechanical properties, elemental analysis, FTIR spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and thermogravimetric analysis to confirm the reliability of this methodology. Moreover, the effect of functionalized degree on the PEEK fiber was inspected, and the phase-transfer catalytic system mediated by the fibrous material showed superior performance in terms of simple procedures, high yields of nitroanisoles (up to 99%), and excellent recyclability (over 30 cycles). Additionally, the newly developed fibrous catalyst exhibited superior stability (at least for 4 months) and effectively gram-scale operation in a concise spinning basket reactor, which is very attractive for various phase-transfer catalysis reactions in chemical productions.