Study on Catalytic Synthesis of Tri(2-ethylhexyl) Citrate with Cerous Methanesulfonate

Cerous methanesulfonate was synthesized and used as the catalyst in the esterification of citric acid with 2-ethylhexanol.The effects of reaction temperature,amount of catalyst and alcohol/acid molar ratio have been investigated.The products were analyzed by means of FT-IR.The yield can be over 98.0% under the optimum conditions that molar ratio of 2-ethylhexanol to citric acid,3.60∶1;amount of catalyst,0.25%(molar percentage of citric acid) and reaction temperature,120℃～130℃,reaction pressure: vacuum.The catalyst can be reused by simple phase-separation after reaction.It is used repeatedly for 5 times without obvious loss of activity and with the yield still over 90.0%.