An Atom-Economic Reaction For Synthesis Of 1-Phenoxy 2-Propanol Over Al₂ O₃ /MgO

Glycol ether is an important chemical widely used as an industrial solvent for coating materials. Al2O3/MgO materials with various Mg/Al molar ratios were prepared and characterized by XRD, FT-IR, SEM and BET analysis. These materials were used as catalysts for synthesis of 1-phenoxy-2-propanol (1-PhP) from phenol and propylene oxide as compared with some oxides i.e. MgO, CaO, ZnO and Al2O3 etc. Al2O3/MgO with AlMg molar ratio of 1.5%o exhibited outstanding catalytic performance with 98.2% conversion and 99.3% selectivity to 1-PhP at 120℃for 5 h. This catalyst can be easily recovered and reused due to its heterogeneous catalytic nature. To further evaluate the performance of the catalyst, Al2O3/MgO/Fe3O4 experiments of the catalyst were carried out. The excellent catalytic performance of the catalyst for synthesis of 1-PhP was found and the results were reported in this paper. Especially, the basic sites with medium strength play a key role for the reaction taking place on the surface. At the same time, the conjugate effect of the benzene ring to hydroxyl group is very important for the etherification of phenol and its derivative with PO. However, the catalyst is cheap, simple preparation, easily recovered and reused that shows its highly potential application foreground in industry.