Performance of an ordinary supported nickel catalyst was tuned to reach an almost complete selectivity for partial hydrogenation of 1,3-butadiene by coating it with a phosphonium-type ionic liquid (IL), tributyl(methyl)phosphonium methyl sulfate, [P₄₄₄₁][MeSO₄]. Thanks to high chemical and thermal stability of [P₄₄₄₁][MeSO₄], the reaction conditions could be pre-optimized for high partial hydrogenation performance before the deposition of the IL coating. When the catalyst was coated with IL, it provided a total butene selectivity of 99.5 ± 0.2%, a record high partial hydrogenation selectivity ever reported for a nickel-based catalyst. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results illustrated that the IL donates electrons to nickel sites and makes them selective for partial hydrogenation. The conductor like screening model for realistic solvents (COSMO-RS) calculations indicated that the IL coating also exerts a filter effect, which helps to maintain this high partial hydrogenation selectivity at all conversion levels.

通过用with型离子液体（IL），三丁基（甲基）methyl甲基硫酸甲酯，[P ₄₄₄₁ ]涂覆，可以调节普通负载型镍催化剂的性能，以实现几乎完全的1,3-丁二烯部分加氢的选择性。[MeSO ₄ ]。由于[P ₄₄₄₁ ] [MeSO _4的高化学稳定性和热稳定性可以在沉积IL涂层之前预先优化反应条件以实现较高的部分氢化性能。当用IL涂覆催化剂时，它提供的总丁烯选择性为99.5±0.2％，这是镍基催化剂所记录的最高的部分氢化选择性。X射线光电子能谱的结果表明，IL将电子提供给镍位，并使它们对部分氢化具有选择性。用于实际溶剂的类似导体的筛选模型（COSMO-RS）计算表明，IL涂层也具有过滤作用，这有助于在所有转化水平下均保持较高的部分氢化选择性。