Study of synthesis of methyl laurate by zinc acetate complex supported over functionalized silica-gel as catalyst

Tetraethoxysilane(TEOS) was employed as the silica-gel(SG) source.The SG was functionalized by succinic acid(SA) and further used for supporting the active component zinc acetate(ZnA) by sol-gel method to develop a zinc acetate complex supported over functionalized silica-gel catalyst(SG-SAZnA).The catalyst was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy(FTIR) and XRD.Laboratory test for synthesis of methyl laurate using SG-SAZnA as catalyst was carried out to assess the performance of the catalyst as well as to investigate the effects of various process conditions such as reaction temperature,reaction time,mole ratio of methanol to lauric acid and the catalyst dosage on the conversion.Experimental results showed that as the mole ratio of methanol to lauric acid is 7∶1;the dosage of catalyst is 5% of the lauric acid;the reaction temperature is 75 ℃ for 1.5 h;the conversion of lauric acid achieves 75%.After the catalyst reused for 5 times,the conversion can still achieve 73.8%.