Impregnation of 12-tungstophosphoric acid on tonsil: An effective catalyst for esterification of formic acid with n-butyl alcohol and kinetic modeling

Abstract

Esterification of formic acid with n-butanol was catalyzed by dodecatungstophosphoric acid, H-3 PW12O40 (DTP) impregnated on tonsil earth. A series of catalysts containing 10%, 20% and 30% of DTP on tonsil earth were synthesized. The samples were characterized by FT-IR, XRD, BET and TG. The 20% DTP loaded on tonsil showed the highest catalytic activity among the samples prepared in this study. Therefore the kinetics of esterification of formic acid with butanol has been studied in the presence of 20% DTP/T. The kinetic behavior of the reaction has been found to follow the Eley-Rideal model