Effects of Montmorillonite and Cane Sugar Composition on The Properties of Montmorillonite-Carbon Sulfonate Catalyst

Received: January 13, 2021 Revised: February 1, 2021 Accepted: February 4, 2021 The influence of montmorillonite and cane sugar mixture with composition of 1:3, 1:2, 1:1, 2:1, and 3:1 to the characteristics of the synthesized montmorillonite-carbon sulfonate composite catalyst had been investigated. The mixture of montmorillonite and cane sugar was carbonized at 400 °C for 15 hours and then sulfonated using sulfuric acid at 175 °C for 15 hours. The presence of sulfonate group was detected using FT-IR and the surface topology of the catalyst was characterized using SEM-EDX. FT-IR spectra showed the existence of sulfonate group at wave number of 1095 cm−1. SEM-EDX analysis showed that the catalyst with the montmorillonite and cane sugar ratio of 1:2 consisted of 1.06% sulfur. The catalyst activity was examined using an esterification reaction between acetic acid and ethanol, and the reaction products were characterized using GC-MS. The chromatogram peak at m/z = 88 confirmed that the product was ethyl acetate. Catalyst with the montmorillonite and cane sugar ratio of 1:2 was shown to have the highest acidity and gave the highest esterification product with 76.97% conversion.