Kinetics of Phase Transfer Catalytic Preparation of Benzyl Benzoate

Abstract The kinetics is studied for the phase transfer catalytic preparation of benzyl benzoate from sodium benzoate and benzyl chloride with tetrabutylaramonium iodide as catalyst in a well stirred batch reactor. Benzyl chloride is dissolved in toluene as the organic phase and sodium benzoate is dissolved in water as the aqueous phase. The kinetics of the overall reaction is described by a first‐order model based on the concentration of benzyl chloride in the organic phase at the later time of the batch reaction. The rate constant increases with an increase of the catalyst concentration while decreases slightly with an increase of the concentration of sodium benzoate under the experimental condition.