USE OF SURFACE MODIFIED BENTONITE CLAY CATALYST FOR ESTERIFICATION OF MALEIC ACID WITH ETHANOL

Rajkumar Sirsam, Ghayas Usmani

Abstract: Inorganic clays are being exploited as solid catalysts support for vide verity of organic reactions. Surface modified (SM) clay was synthesized by sulfuric acid treatment of raw bentonite clay. Acid treated clay was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The esterification of maleic acid with ethanol using SM clay catalyst was carried out to study an effect of various parameters viz. speed of agitation, catalyst loading, mole ratio of reactants and temperature. SM bentonite shows better catalytic activity towards maleic acid-ethanol esterification. A Pseudo-homogeneous kinetic model was used to validate the experimental data. Kinetic parameter such as rate constant and activation energy was estimated for the reaction.

Keywords: Esterification, maleic acid, SM bentonite, rate constant, activation energy.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15623/ijret.2015.0404025