Vapor-phase highly selective O-methylation of catechol with methanol over ZnCl2 modified γ-Al2O3 catalysts

It is firstly discovered that ZnCl2 modified γ-Al2O3 (ZnCl2/γ-Al2O3) solid Lewis acid catalyst, which is prepared by solid-state reaction, is very active and extremely selective for the preparation of guaiacol by the vapor phase O-methylation of catechol with methanol in a fixed-bed reactor at 553 K.