Magnetic Vinylphenyl Boronic Acid Microparticles for Surface Catalytic Performance in Esterification of Propionic Acid with Methanol

Magnetic vinylphenyl boronic acid microparticles, poly(ethylene glycol dimethacrylate-vinylphenyl boronic acid) [m-poly(EGDMA-VPBA)], produced by suspension polymerization, was found to be efficient solid acid catalyst for the esterification of methanol and propionic acid. Characterization techniques such as FT-IR, Elemental analyses, ICP-AES, ESR, SEM and N 2 sorption showed that both of Fe 3 O 4 and H 2 SO 4 are bonded to the polymer successfully. Esterification was studied for different molar percentages of H 2 SO 4 at temperature range of 50-70 o C. The apparent activation energy was found to be 27.7 kj.mol -1 for 10% H 2 SO 4 doped m-poly(EGDMA-VPBA). Combining of strong acid H 2 SO 4 with m-poly(EGDMA-VPBA), leads to materials with different functional properties. In addition, H 2 SO 4 species could be introduced into the structure as acid centers, therefore this micro-dimensional catalyst has potential candidate for applications in the catalytic esterifications such as propionic acid with methanol.