Synthesis of High‐Value Tricarballylate Plasticizers Directly from Citric Acid Esters on Bifunctional Pd/Nb2O5.nH2O Catalysts.

Tricarballylate esters are considered as an appealing class of biobased plasticizers. This work focusses on the production of tricarballylate esters from citrate esters through a one‐pot sequential dehydration‐hydrogenation process, in order to circumvent the undesired decarboxylation side reaction in the synthesis of tricarballylic acid directly from citric acid. High yields up to 93 % of different tricarballylate esters were obtained with a self‐synthesised bifunctional 0.2 wt % Pd/Nb2O5.nH2O catalyst employed in methylcyclohexane as inert solvent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]