The porous spherical alumina (γ-Al2O3) as catalyst support was prepared by sol-gel method, and FeCl3/γ-Al2O3 materials were prepared by impregnation method. The FeCl3/γ-Al2O3 materials were used as catalyst in the Solketal production process by acetalization of acetone and glycerol, showing considerable catalytic performance. When the molar ratio of glycerol and acetone was 1: 10, 0.2 mol% FeCl3/γ-Al2O3 was used as the catalyst, and the reaction was carried out at 25°C for 30 min, the conversion of glycerol was 99.89%, the selectivity of Solketal was 98.36%, and the yield of Solketal reached 98.25%. The mechanism is due to the spherical γ-Al2O3 support has high thermal stability, large specific surface area, and rich pore structure, encouraging abundant active sites and high catalytic activity of FeCl3 for the acetalization reaction. Thereafter, the experimental results prove that the prepared FeCl3/γ-Al2O3 catalyst can be easily recovered and reused many times, indicating its great value for large-scale research and application in the future.
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