Hydrolysis of 4-methoxyphenylacetic acid butyl ester under liquid–liquid biphasic phase transfer condition and their kinetics

Hydrolysis of 4-methoxyphenylacetic acid butyl ester (MPABE) with aqueous potassium hydroxide and catalyzed by tetrabutylammonium bromide in chlorobenzene was investigated in this work. Hydrolysis reaction is greatly enhanced using tetrabutylammonium bromide in the presence of potassium hydroxide in an organic solvent/aqueous solution two-phase medium. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the kinetic behavior, mechanism, and activation energy of the reaction system. Influence of experimental parameters viz., stirring speed, amount of catalyst, different solvents, amount of potassium hydroxide, different inorganic salts, different phase transfer catalysts and temperature on rate of hydrolysis is presented. A rational mechanism for the hydrolysis is proposed according to the experimental evidence.

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► Hydrolysis of 4-methylphenylacetic acid butyl ester (MPABE) was investigated.
► Advantages of PTC method over conventional method were presented.
► Effect of operating parameters on the rate of hydrolysis was examined.