Transesterification of acrylates by heterogeneous basic catalysis

• Solid basic catalysts are used in transesterification reaction of acrylates.
• Solid basic catalysts proved to be active and selective.
• Ca(NO3)2/γAl2O3 was shown to be the most selective and could be reused up to 4 cycles.
• Transesterification reaction of acrylates would be favoured by weakest basic sites.

Different solid basic catalysts including CsF/αAl2O3, KF/αAl2O3, Ca(NO3)2/γAl2O3, NaNO3/γAl2O3, LiNO3/γAl2O3 were evaluated for the transesterification of ethyl acrylate by n-hexanol. All of them are active and selective in the transesterification reaction under mild conditions and without solvent, using a 1/1 molar ratio of reactants. Ca/γAl2O3 was shown to be the most selective of this set of catalysts and it could be recycled three times without lost of selectivity.

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