Magnetic chitosan supported copper particles as a heterogeneous catalyst for benzaldehyde glycol acetal reaction

• Published in: International journal of biological macromolecules Vol. 281; no. Pt 1; p. 136269
• Main Authors: Han, Xiaoxiang, Zhou, Fan, Liu, Xuru, Zheng, Weishi, Wang, Zhen, Yang, Shuifen, Tang, Xiujuan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 01.11.2024
• Subjects: Acetalization reaction; Magnetic chitosan supported metal catalyst; Response surface methodology; Magnetic chitosan supported metal catalyst; Acetalization reaction; Response surface methodology
• ISSN: 0141-8130; 1879-0003; 1879-0003
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2024.136269

In this work, a series of magnetic chitosan (CS) supported-metal catalysts were successfully prepared for the acetalization of benzaldehyde (BzH) with ethylene glycol (EG). The structural properties of the catalysts were characterized by TEM, FT-IR, XRD, XPS, TGA-DTG, SEM-EDX and VSM. The results showed that Fe3O4-CS-Cu(20 %) catalyst possessed the best catalytic efficiency in all prepared catalysts due to its suitable acidity and excellent stability when they were utilized in the acetalization reaction to generate benzaldehyde glycol acetal. The response surface methodology based on Box-Behnken design was applied to optimize acetalization reaction conditions with the optimal yield of 96.26 % obtained via 3D surface diagram. The attractive feature of prepared catalysts was easy separation from solutions via an external magnetic field application. This work sheds light on the design of novel chitosan-supported metal catalysts which could be widely applied in acetalization industry. •Catalysts with high magnetic responsivity and excellent dispersibility were prepared.•Fe3O4-CS-Cu(20 %) catalyst showed superior catalytic activity for acetal production.•The catalysts can be easily manipulated by external magnetic fields to achieve simple and efficient solid-liquid separation.•Process optimization by RSM based on BBD model was performed.