Study on the catalytic activity of coppermethanesulfonate in esterification reaction

Copper methanesulfonate is synthesized and characterized by TGA and FTIR. Copper methanesulfonate is used as the catalyst in the esterification of acetic acid with n-butanol. Various factors that affected the esterification have been investigated. Under the condition of 1.1/1 molar ratio of n-butanol to acetic acid, 0.5% catalyst (molar percent of acetic acid),2.5 h reaction time, temperature 80～85 ℃,2.5 ml cyclohexane as water-carrying agent,the esterification yield of butyl acetate reaches 97.7%. The catalytic activity of copper methanesulfonate is higher than that of copper sulfate, copper chloride, cupric nitrate,copper acetate and other Lewis acids. copper methanesulfonate is used as the catalyst in synthesizing other acetic ester and isopropyl chloroacetate,the esterification yield is high, after reaction the catalyst can be reused by simple phase-separation, and the yield is stable.