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Catalytic Upgrading of Renewable Levulinic Acid to Levulinate Esters Using Perchloric Acid Decorated Nanoporous Silica Gels
Author(s) -
Yang Fu,
Tang Jingjing
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
chemistryselect
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.437
H-Index - 34
ISSN - 2365-6549
DOI - 10.1002/slct.201803608
Subject(s) - levulinic acid , catalysis , nanoporous , chemistry , perchloric acid , desorption , yield (engineering) , alcohol , organic chemistry , inorganic chemistry , materials science , adsorption , metallurgy
Catalytic upgrading of renewable biomass resource toward useful chemicals is interesting but challenged, in this paper, several inorganic acids were examined for the catalytic esterification of levulinic acid with alcohol, and then ulteriorly loaded on the applicable supports to obtain the heterogeneous catalysts. Among them, HClO 4 /SiO 2 nanoporous solid‐acid catalyst exhibits the highest catalytic activity for the synthesis of ethyl levulinate. The resulting HClO 4 /SiO 2 catalyst was characterized by FT‐IR, Energy Dispersive X‐ray (EDX)‐mapping, X‐ray Diffraction (XRD), NH 3 ‐Temperature‐Programmed‐Desorption (TPD), and N 2 desorption. Various reaction factors including loading of HClO 4 , catalyst dosage, reaction time and temperature were checked and optimized. As expected, the targeted catalyst affords 99% yield of ethyl levulinate and a durable activity even with five runs. Finally, esterification of levulinic acid with various alcohols over the HClO 4 /SiO 2 was further expanded based on the optimal reaction condition.