process the following process conditions were used to generate deactivated catalyst a 1 butylpyridinium chloroaluminate ionic liquid catalyst from fresh catalyst a the reaction was continued for 72 hours when it was judged that the catalyst had become sufficiently deactivated determination of the amounts of conjunct polymer and olefin oligomers in deactivated il a the wt of conjunct polymers in the spent deactivated ionic liquid was determined by hydrolysis of known weights of the spent catalyst the example below is a typical procedure for measuring conjunct polymers in a given spent catalyst in a glove box 15 gm of a spent ionic liquid catalyst in a flask were rinsed first with 30 50 ml of anhydrous hexane to remove from the spent catalyst any residual hydrocarbon or olefinic oligomers the hexane rinse was concentrated under reduced pressure to give only 0 02 gm of yellow oil 0 13 then 50 ml of anhydrous hexane was added to the rinsed catalyst followed by slow addition of 15 ml of water and the mixture was stirred at 0 u00b0 c for 15 20 minutes the resulting mixture was diluted with additional 30 ml hexanes and stirred well for additional 5 10 minutes the mixture was allowed to settle down to two layers solution and some solid residue.