One-pot synthesis of mesostructured AlSBA-15-SO3H effective catalysts for the esterification of salicylic acid with dimethyl carbonate

Mesostructured AlSBA-15-SO3H materials with various Si/Al ratios were prepared by a one-pot method and characterized by XRD, N2 adsorption, NH3-TPD and Si, Al MAS-NMR techniques. With the incorporation of Al into SBA-15-SO3H, the total acid sites substantially increased. Such materials showed high activity in the esterification of dimethyl carbonate (DMC) with salicylic acid (SA), and the selectivity of methyl salicylate was correlated with the Bronsted acidity of the catalysts.