Hydrolysis of carboxylic acid esters catalyzed by a carbon-based solid acid

Abstract

A carbon-based solid acid catalyst is prepared by incomplete carbonization of sulfonated naphthalene and used for the hydrolysis of carboxylic acid esters. XRD, FT-IR, TGA and acid density test are employed to characterize the structure and performance of the catalysts. The results show that the catalysts prepared under different synthesis temperature and time are amorphous carbon composed of small aromatic carbon sheets with –SO3H groups. The catalytic activities of catalysts for methyl acetate hydrolysis are closely related with their acid densities. The appropriate synthesis temperature and time for the catalyst are 230 °C and 12 h and the acid density of catalyst under the optimized conditions can reach 4.49 mmol g−1. The carbon-based solid acid shows higher catalytic activity than Amberlyst-15 resin as a popular hydrolysis catalyst for a series of carboxylic acid esters hydrolysis. The catalyst has good thermal stability, which can bear 250 °C without decomposition. It also remains satisfactory catalytic activity for methyl acetate hydrolysis after six times recycling.