Kinetics of the reaction of ethanol and lauric acid catalyzed by deep eutectic solvent based on benzyltrimethylammonium chloride

Abstract

Abstract In this work, three types of deep eutectic solvents (DESs: BAC‐PTSA, BAC‐2PTSA, and BAC‐3PTSA) based on benzyltrimethylammonium chloride (BAC) were successfully synthesized by mixing benzyltrimethylammonium chloride with p ‐toluenesulphonic acid monohydrate (PTSA) and used as catalysts for the esterification reaction of ethanol and lauric acid. The kinetics of the reaction of ethanol and lauric acid in the presence of DESs as catalysts was investigated systemically in the temperature range of 333.15–353.15 K. The influences of different parameters including type of DESs, reaction temperature, catalyst loading, and initial reactant molar ratio on the conversion of lauric acid were discussed. The kinetic experimental data obtained were successfully correlated by the pseudohomogeneous (PH) model based on the activities. Moreover, BAC‐3PTSA is easily synthesized and reused six times without any significant decrease in catalytic activity.