An Efficient Thiol and Trifluoromethanesulfonyl Difunctional Sulfonated Mesoporous Polydivinylbenzene Solid Acid: Cooperative Effect of Steric Hindrance and Acidity

Abstract

AbstractFor acid‐catalyzed chemical reactions with forming isomers of the target product, the isomer by‐products cannot be well inhibited only by adjusting the acid properties. At this point, it is an effective strategy to design functional acid catalysts to decrease by‐products through increasing the steric hindrance of forming isomer by‐products. In this paper, thiol and trifluoromethanesulfonyl functional sulfonated mesoporous polydivinylbenzene solid acids were prepared. The Bisphenol‐A synthesis reaction was used as a probe reaction to verify the cooperative effect of thiol and trifluoromethanesulfonyl on the catalytic performance of prepared solid acids. The results confirmed that thiol functionalizing sulfonated mesoporous polydivinylbenzene solid acid could reduce the by‐product o′p‐bisphenol‐A through steric hindrance effect and then improved the selectivity of the target product p′p‐bisphenol‐A. Trifluoromethanesulfonyl functionalizing sulfonated mesoporous polydivinylbenzene could promote the catalytic efficiency and the selectivity of p′p‐bisphenol‐A by enhancing the acidity of solid acids. Thiol and trifluoromethanesulfonyl difunctional sulfonated mesoporous polydivinylbenzene (PDVB‐SO2CF3‐SO3H‐SH) had the optimal catalytic performance due to the cooperative effect of steric hindrance and strong acidity. The phenol conversion of 37 % and the p′p‐bisphenol‐A selectivity of 97 % were obtained over PDVB‐SO2CF3‐SO3H‐SH under 90 °C for 4 h.