###### Abstract  
Macroporous cardo polyetherketone (PEK-C) powder catalyst bearing covalently ionic liquids (PEK-C-ILs) was prepared, it exhibited a high catalytic performance for biomass hydrolysis. A hydrolysis mechanism of inulin over this new catalyst was proposed as well. The influences of degree of chloromethylation of PEK-C, catalyst dosage, reaction temperature, pore size of PEK-C-ILs and inulin concentration were investigated. A high conversion of inulin of 99.7% was obtained under the optimal reaction conditions. Meanwhile, the hydrolysis kinetics was studied under different conditions. The proposed kinetic model of inulin hydrolysis catalyzed by PEK-C-ILs was established and it successfully predicted the inulin hydrolysis in wider ranges of experimental conditions. The results demonstrated that the catalytic inulin hydrolysis performance of PEK-C-ILs is better than that of homogenous ILs due to that there was a high-density spatial distribution of active sites on the surface and inner pore wall of PEK-C after the ILs was immobilized. Furthermore, the stability including chemical structure and physical appearance and reusability tests showed that PEK-C-ILs catalyst could be effectively separated and recovered from hydrolysates and has excellent reusability. Importantly, using the PEK-C-ILs as catalyst makes the recycling of ILs simplified, efficient and the hydrolysis process more economical. At the same time, it avoided the potential hazards of homogenous ILs to the environment. Therefore, it is a kind of green catalyst with potential application prospect in many catalysis fields. c 2018 8 770 [accepted: 19 April 2018; Published: 11 May 2018 ]16  
Conventionally, the hydrolysis was carried out using concentrated acid [4], diluted acid [5] or enzyme [6] as catalysts. However, several disadvantages of these catalysts made this process inefficient and uneconomical. Inorganic acids could cause the problems of equipment corrosion, severe environmental pollution and generally expensive for commercial use [7]. As for enzyme, it is difficult to recycle and low efficiency as a result of the toxic side effects of the microorganism [8]. Thus, developing environmental friendly catalysts with wide industrial application for producing fermentable sugar from biomass is an urgent task. Ionic liquids (ILs), as eco-friendly reaction media [9] and catalysts [10], have attracted increasing attention on account of the particular properties such as low volatility, non-inflammatory, high thermal stability and prominent solubility. Moreover, the properties of ILs varied by altering the intercombination of cation and anion which make them more applicable in many physical and chemical fields. The functionalized ILs has been used innumerous types of reactions and aroused great interest in recent years [11]. Studies involved the utilization of the functionalized ILs as catalysts for the hydrolysis of biomass have also been reported [12]. [PERSON] et al. [13] developed the hydrolysis kinetics models that predicted the inulin hydrolysis progress catalyzed by the homogeneous imidazole-based acidic ILs very well. Homogeneous functionalized ILs catalysts catalyzed effectively biomass hydrolysis process, but it presents several drawbacks, such as difficult for catalyst separation and recycling and high cost [14]. Herein, developing an approved strategy to overcome these limitations is urgently demand. Immobilization of the functionalized ILs not only possesses much higher catalytic efficiency, but facilitates the separation of reactants and catalyst as well. Many works have focused on immobilized ILs on different materials, such as inorganic material [15], polymers [16] and magnetic materials [17]. Being cheap, separable and easily modified, polymeric materials are widely used to substitute others in many research fields. [PERSON] et al. [18] suggested that the polystyrene-supported ILs ([SO\({}_{3}\)H-PIM][HSO\({}_{4}\)]) could effectively catalyze the esterifications and exhibit high catalytic activity.