Synthesis of Glyceryl Monobaurate Catalyzed by Stannic Chloride

Glyceryl monolaurate is a widely used surfactant and has an excellent properties in emulsion of food and cosmetics when the content of glyceryl monolaurate is over 90 %. A new synthetic method for glyceryl monolaurate(GML) from glycerin and lauric acid via protected hydroxy groups by boric acid was studied and the effect of amount and types of catalyst, water taking regent on the yield were also investigated. The result showed that Stannic Chloride has a high catalytic activity than p-toluene sulfonic acid. The optimum technical conditions were established as follows : molar ratio of glycerol to boric acid to lauric acid was 2∶1∶2, the amount of catalyst was 2.5 g, toluene acted as the water taking regent, the reaction temperature was 160 ℃. Under the conditions the yield was 86.5 %.