Esterification of benzoic acid using Ti3AlC2 and SO4 2−/Ti3AlC2 ceramic as acid catalysts

A novel catalyst of SO42−SO42− over Ti3AlC2 ceramic was prepared by an impregnation method. The resulting catalyst exhibited high catalytic activity and selectivity for the esterification of benzoic acid to ethyl benzoate. This study realized 80.4% conversion for benzoic acid and >99% selectivity for ethyl benzoate under 120 °C at 34 h. Various characteristics of the reaction were studied, such as performance of Ti3AlC2 and SO42−SO42−/Ti3AlC2, the influence of bases, reaction temperature, reaction time, and recycling of the catalyst. In order to further study this reaction system, the XRD and FT-IR of SO42−SO42−/Ti3AlC2 was detected and analyzed. All results indicate that SO42−SO42−/Ti3AlC2 can serve as an acid catalyst.