Catalytic study on the transesterification of dimethyl carbonate and phenol to diphenyl carbonate

Transesterification of dimethyl carbonate and phenol to diphenyl carbonate and catalysts were investigated. The results showed that the transesterification was the reaction of soft base binding to hard acid, and hard acid catalysts had higher transesterification selectivity than the soft and border acid catalysts. When the hard acid n-Bu2SnO and bases constituted acid–base complex catalysts, it was found that Cu2O, as a promoter, could enhance the activity of n-Bu2SnO outstandingly. The conversion of dimethyl carbonate was up to 50.8% with 99.9% transesterification selectivity. A plausible mechanism was also suggested.