In this research, synthesis of cyanide antidote (3-methylbutyl) nitrite has been designed and performed by response surface methodology. The antidote was prepared by the reaction of 3-methyl-1-butanol with sodium nitrite, which is the nitrosonium (NO?) source, in the presence of sulfonic acid-functionalized Fe3O4 (Fe3O4@SO3H) as a nanomagnetic solid acid catalyst and triethylammonium hydrogen sulfate as ionic liquid in aqueous media. Optimization of the reaction conditions was investigated using the response surface method (central composite design). In accordance with analysis of variance, a quadratic polynomial model was able to predict the response. Predicted response values by the obtained model was in good agreement with the experimental results. A clean reaction, easy workup procedure, reusability of the catalyst and a high yield are some advantages of this method.
