Preparation and catalytic properties of sulfonated carbon–palygorskite solid acid catalyst

•Sulfonated carbon–palygorskite (SC–PAL) composite catalysts have been synthesized.•The featured structure of PAL was maintained after carbonization and sulfonation.•SC–PAL catalysts exhibited high catalytic properties to the esterification reaction.•The catalytic properties could be adjustable by changing the added sucrose amount.

Sulfonated carbon–palygorskite (SC–PAL) composite catalyst was successfully prepared via carbonization of sucrose on PAL supports followed by sulfonation with concentrated sulfuric acid. The featured structure of PAL was maintained in the SC–PAL composite catalyst after carbonization and sulfonation. The SC–PAL composite catalysts had high BET surface area and exhibited high catalytic properties to the esterification reaction of acetic acid and n-butyl alcohol. And the catalytic properties were adjustable by changing the added sucrose amount. The best yield of n-butyl acetate appeared at SC–PAL-5 composite catalyst (1 g sucrose/g PAL) and was higher than 80% after reaction at 120 °C for 4 h.