Efficient Synthesis of Dimethyl Carbonate via Transesterification from Ethylene Carbonate with Methanol Using KAlO 2 /γ‐Al 2 O 3 Heterogeneous Catalyst

Abstract Dimethyl carbonate (DMC) is an important environmentally‐friendly organic compound. The need for efficient synthesis of DMC has given a fillip to search for new catalysts and their cost‐effective preparation. In this work, a series of KAlO 2 /γ‐Al 2 O 3 heterogeneous catalysts were rapidly prepared by impregnation method. These catalysts were characterized by FTIR, XRD, XPS, TG‐MS, ICP‐OES, BET and Hammett acid‐base titration and tested for the synthesis of DMC via transesterification from ethylene carbonate (EC) with methanol. The results demonstrated that KAlO 2 , as the active species, was produced in large quantities during the calcination process. The catalyst with a calcination temperature of 700 °C and a K 2 CO 3 loading of 45 wt % exhibited the best catalytic activity. The optimum conditions for the process resulted in a catalyst amount of 1.0 wt %, a reaction temperature of 100 °C and a reaction time of 80 min, in which the EC conversion and DMC selectivity were 80.2 % and 98.9 %, respectively. In addition, the TON, TOF and reaction rate were 80.3, 61.2 h −1 and 3.91 g DMC ⋅g cat −1 ⋅min −1 . The reusability of the catalyst with best catalytic activity was also studied.