Highly Active and Selective Solid Acid Catalysts for Acetolysis of Epichlorohydrin

Abstract

The liquid phase acetolysis of epichlorohydrin (ECH) with acetic acid was carried out over various solid acid catalysts such as viz., acid activated montmorillonite K10 (Mont. K10), supported dodecatungstophosphoric acid (DTP) and zinc chloride supported on Mont. K10 catalysts. The acid activated Mont. K10 and supported DTP catalysts are found to be active for the selective formation of 1-acetoxy-3-chloro-2-propanol. A systematic investigation of the effects of various reaction parameters such as, the effect of the acid activation, catalyst weight and reaction temperature on the acetolysis of ECH was investigated over acid activated Mont. K10. The Mont. K10 acid activated using 0.3 M HCl exhibited higher catalytic activity. Kinetic analysis showed that, the reaction followed first order kinetics with respect to ECH and obeyed Langmuir-Hinselwood mechanism. The correlation of catalytic activity with acidity specifies that, the strong Bronsted acid sites promote the acetolysis of epichlorohydrin. The acid activated Mont. K10 catalysts were successfully reused for several times. The present results reveal that, the acid activated Mont. K10 and supported DTP catalysts may be promising candidates to replace conventional acid catalyst in the industrial manufacture of 1-acetoxy-3-chloro-2-propanol.