WANG Xiaoyu, CAO Pengfei, GAO Chunguang*, ZHAO Yongxiang*

(School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Engineering Research Center of Ministry of Education for Fine Chemicals, Shanxi University, Taiyuan, Shanxi 030006,　P. R. China)

Abstract: Dibutyl maleate (DBM) and dibutyl fumarate (DBF) are important intermediates extensively used in industrial application. The current paper reports a study on the efficacy of tin tetrachloride supported on silica aerogels catalyst (Sn/Si) in the esterification of maleic anhydride (MA) with butanol (BO) at reflux in which DBM and DBF are synthesized directly. The catalyst was characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), Infrared (FTIR) spectra, UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectra (DRUV-vis), N2 sorption and element analysis. The optimal reaction conditions were confirmed as follows: calcination temperature of silica aerogels was 500 ?C, reaction time was 6 h, mol ratio of reactants was 1 : 2 : 0.0028 (MA : BO : Sn/Si). The conversion of MA was up to 86.10 % almost tends to the homogeneous catalyst system. And the Sn/Si catalyst kept a reasonable activity after 6 times reused cycles.

Key words: Esterification; Maleic anhydride; Butanol; Silica aerogels; Tin tetrachloride

E-mail: yxzhao@sxu.edu.cn cgao@sxu.edu.cn

Journal of Molecular Catalysis, Vol. 26, Issue 1, 2012, 39-45