Zr-DBS with Sulfonic Group: A Green and Highly Efficient Catalyst for Alcoholysis of Furfuryl Alcohol to Ethyl Levulinate.

The alcoholysis of furfuryl alcohol (FA) produce ethyl levulinate (EL) plays a crucial role in the field of biomass conversion. In this work, a novel Zr-base catalyst with sulfonic groups in its structure was prepared by the co-precipitation of sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate and ZrOCl2 (Zr-DBS) under non-toxic conditions. It was found that Zr-DBS has an excellent catalytic performance for this reaction and an EL yield of 95.27% could be achieved. Besides, Zr-DBS could be easily separated from the reaction system and reused at least four times without a significantly decrease in activity. Meanwhile, Zr-DBS was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), N2 adsorption–desorption, inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) and Temperature-programmed desorption of ammonia (NH3-TPD). The main reason for the high catalytic activity of the Zr-DBS was that the synergetic effects of Lewis and Brønsted acid sites and appropriate textural properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]