The kinetics of esterification of benzoic acid with n-octyl and issoctyl alcohols in the presence of tetrabutyl titanate as catalyst

摘要

Benzoic acid, 1 mol, was esterified with 3,5 or 10 mols ROH (R = octyl, isooctyl) at 413-453 K in an all-glass stirred (1000 rpm) reactor with 0.8 wt.% TiBu_4 as catalyst. Samples were withdrawn at 5, 10 or 15 min intervals according to actual reaction rate and titrated with KOH. The reactions were first-order with respect to each alcohol and to the acid. The activation energies and preexponential factors were: n-octanol, 100.5 and 1.5·10~(11); and isooctanol, 135 kJ/mol and 1.3·10~9 m~3/ (mol·min), resp. The energies are higher than those reported for sulfuric acid and phosphotungstic acid as catalysts.