Effects of Montmorillonite and Cane Sugar Composition on The Properties of Montmorillonite-Carbon Sulfonate Catalyst

The influence of montmorillonite and cane sugar mixture with composition of 1:3, 1:2, 1:1, 2:1, and 3:1 to the characteristics of the synthesized montmorillonite-carbon sulfonate composite catalyst had been investigated. The mixture of montmorillonite and cane sugar was carbonized at 400 oC for 15 hours and then sulfonated using sulfuric acid at 175 oC for 15 hours. The presence of sulfonate group was detected using FT-IR and the surface topology of the catalyst was characterized using SEM-EDX. FT-IR spectra showed the existence of sulfonate group at wave number of 1095 cm-1. SEM-EDX analysis showed that the catalyst with the montmorillonite and cane sugar ratio of 1:2 consisted of 1.06% sulfur. The catalyst activity was examined using an esterification reaction between acetic acid and ethanol, and the reaction products were characterized using GC-MS. The chromatogram peak at m/z = 88 confirmed that the product was ethyl acetate. Catalyst with the montmorillonite and cane sugar ratio of 1:2 was shown to have the highest acidity and gave the highest esterification product with 76.97% conversion.