Studies on catalytic synthesis of fructone with modified fly ash

The synthesis of fructone from ethyl acetoacetate and ethylene glycol using fly ash modified by ammonium peroxydisulfate as solid acid catalyst was investigated.Various reaction parameters such as reaction time,ratio of ethyl acetoacetate to ethylene glycol,catalyst amount and water-carrying reagent amount were studied.The optimum reaction conditions were: the molar ratio of ethyl acetoacetate to ethylene glycol is 1∶ 1.8,the quantity of catalyst-1.5 wt.% by weight of ethyl acetaoacetate,amount of cyclohexane-15 mL,and the reaction time will be 3 h.Under this optimum condition,the yield of fructone reaches 95.9%.The experimental results showed that fly ash modified by ammonium peroxydisulfate is an excellent catalyst for synthesis of fructone.Comparaed with other acid catalysts,the sulfonated activated carbon has higher activity,lesser used quantity and reusability.