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Water Tolerant and Reusable Sulfonated Hyperbranched Poly(aryleneoxindole) Acid Catalyst for Solvent‐Free Esterification
Author(s) -
Verheyen Thomas,
Smet Mario,
De Borggraeve Wim M.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
chemistryselect
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.437
H-Index - 34
ISSN - 2365-6549
DOI - 10.1002/slct.201701636
Subject(s) - catalysis , reagent , reuse , chemistry , organic chemistry , solvent , condensation , combinatorial chemistry , waste management , physics , engineering , thermodynamics
The synthesis of esters directly from alcohols and carboxylic acids plays an important role in organic synthesis because of its utility in diverse fields both in academia and in industry. Innovations to further improve the efficiency and sustainability of the esterification process are highly desirable. To accomplish a green esterification protocol, we used a recoverable sulfonated hyperbranched poly(aryleneoxindole) acid catalyst in the condensation of various alcohols with acids. The protocol allows high conversion with equimolar amounts of reagents, recovery and reuse up to at least five times with solvent free conditions thus simplifying purification steps and reducing redundancy. Furthermore the reaction medium was deliberately spiked with water to evaluate its influence on the activity of the acid catalyst and excellent tolerance was observed.