Synthesis of n-butyl lactate under Microwave Irradiation and in presence of Phase Transfer Catalyst

n-Butyl lactate was synthesized with sodium lactate and n-butyl bromide as starting materials through nucleophilic substitution reaction in the presence of catalyst of tetrabutyl ammonium bromide under microwave irradiation.Effects of the microwave irradiation power,reaction time,mole ratio of the starting materials and catalyst dosage etc on esterify reaction conversion were discussed.The results demonstrated that with microwave power of 280W for 35min when the mole ratio of the sodium lactate,n-butyl bromide and tetrabutyl ammonium bromide was 1∶4∶0.03,the yield of n-butyl lactate was 91.7%.