An efficient and sustainable production of triacetin from the acetylation of glycerol using magnetic solid acid catalysts under mild conditions

• Selective preparation of triacetin is achieved from the glycerol acetylation.
• Magnetic solid acid is a preferable catalyst which contains Ti, Sn and Fe element.
• A 100% conversion and 99.0% selectivity of triacetin has been obtained.
• Effects of temperature and time, and recycling of catalyst are studied in detail.

The efficient and selective acetylation of glycerol to produce triacetin is achieved using magnetic solid acids as catalysts. The Fe-based materials including Fe-Sn-Ti (OH)x, Fe-Sn-Ti(SO42−) and Fe-Sn-Ti(SO42−)-t (t represents the temperature for the heating treatment) were successfully prepared and employed in the acetylation of glycerol, respectively. As a result, 100% conversion and 99.0% selectivity for triacetin was obtained in the presence of a catalytic amount of Fe-Sn-Ti(SO42−)-400 at 80 °C for 30 min, which exhibits higher catalytic activity than those of some molecular sieves. The magnetic catalytic materials were respectively characterized by XRD, IR, TG-DTG, BET and NH3-TPD techniques. Moreover, the effects of reaction temperature and reaction time in the glycerol acetylation are investigated in detail. Finally, based on the experimental results and reaction phenomena, a possible mechanism for the catalytic reaction is proposed.

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