Green Synthesis of Ultraviolet Absorber 2-Ethylhexyl Salicylate: Experimental Design and Artificial Neural Network Modeling

Abstract

2-Ethylhexyl salicylate, an ultraviolet filter, is widely used to protect skin against sunlight-induced harmful effects in the cosmetic industry. In this study, the green synthesis of 2-ethylhexyl salicylate using immobilized lipase through a solvent-free and reduced pressure evaporation system was investigated. A Box–Behnken design was employed to develop an artificial neural network (ANN) model. The parameters for an optimal architecture of an ANN were set out: a quick propagation algorithm, a hyperbolic tangent transfer function, 10,000 iterations, and six nodes within the hidden layer. The best-fitting performance of the ANN was determined by the coefficient of determination and the root-mean-square error between the correlation of predicted and experimental data, indicating that the ANN displayed excellent data-fitting properties. Finally, the experimental conditions of synthesis were well established with the optimal parameters to obtain a high conversion of 2-ethylhexyl salicylate. In conclusion, this study efficiently replaces the traditional solvents with a green process for the synthesis of 2-ethylhexyl salicylate to avoid environmental contamination, and this process is well-modeled by a methodological ANN for optimization, which might be a benefit for industrial production.