Comparative study of the effectiveness of Na2CO3 and K2CO3 as base in methylation reaction on eugenol using dimethylcarbonate

Abstract

Dimethyl carbonate (DMC) is an alternative replacement for dimethyl sulfate (DMS) and methyl halides which can be used in the methylation reaction of phenolic compounds. This comparative study will be conducted on the synthesis of eugenol to methyl eugenol using dimethyl carbonate (DMC) reagent with phase transfer catalyst (PTC) tetra butyl ammonium bromide (TBAB) and Na2CO3 and K2CO3 as base. The results obtained from the variation process of Na2CO3 and K2CO3 indicate that the use of both as bases provides high yield. However, higher yields are generated from the use of Na2CO3 as a base, which is 97.68% or in other words higher than K2CO3. The use of K2CO3, which is because Na2CO3 was harder or stronger than K2CO3. Even though it has used Na2CO3 but cannot reduce the amount of dimethylcarbonate used, the mole ratio of dimethylcarbonate with eugenol is 16: 1 to produce the most optimum methyl eugenol yield.