Solvent-Free Benzylation of Glycerol by Benzyl Alcohol Using Heteropoly Acid Impregnated on K-10 Clay as Catalyst

Abstract

Value addition to glycerol, the sole co-product in biodiesel production, will lead to reform of the overall biodiesel economy. Different valuable chemicals can be produced from glycerol using heterogeneous catalysis and these valuable chemicals are useful in industries such as cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, fuels, soap, paints, and fine chemicals. Therefore, the conversion of glycerol to valuable chemicals using heterogeneous catalysis is a noteworthy area of research. Etherification of glycerol with alkenes or alcohols is an important reaction in converting glycerol to various value-added chemicals. This article describes reaction of glycerol with benzyl alcohol in solvent-free medium by using a clay supported modified heteropolyacid (HPA), Cs2.5H0.5PW12O40/K-10 (Cs-DTP/K-10) as solid catalyst and its comparison with other catalysts in a batch reactor. Mono-Benzyl glycerol ether (MBGE) was the major product formed in the reaction along with formation of di-benzyl glycerol ether (DBGE). The effects of different parameters were studied to optimize the reaction parameters. This work provides an insight into characterization of Cs2.5H0.5PW12O40/K-10 catalyst by advanced techniques such as surface area measurement, X-ray analysis, ICP-MS, FT-IR, and SEM. Reaction products were characterized and confirmed by using the GCMS method. The kinetic model was developed from an insight into the reaction mechanism. The apparent energy of activation was found to be 18.84 kcal/mol.

Metal–Acid Bifunctional Catalysts toward Tandem Reaction: One-Step Hydroalkylation of Benzene to Cyclohexylbenzene

“…Ni/MMOs (Figure S3) and x HPW-Ni/MMOs (Figure c) show rather close XRD patterns, implying a high dispersion of HPW species that cannot be detected by XRD analysis. , Meanwhile, HPW supported on the Al 2 O 3 (HPW/Al 2 O 3 ) sample was synthesized as a control sample, and no reflection of HPW species was observed (Figure S4). On the basis of the FT-IR spectra (Figure S5), all the x HPW-Ni/MMOs samples exhibit IR bands at approximately 1070 cm –1 (P–O bond in the central tetrahedral) and 941 cm –1 (WO terminal bond), whose intensity enhances gradually with the increase of HPW content.…”