Surface‐Modified CaO Catalyst for the Production of Glycerol Carbonate

Abstract For enhancing the moisture resistance properties of the commercial CaO, the surface of the CaO has been modified using various aliphatic and aromatic groups as modifiers. The binding of the modifiers onto the surface of the CaO is confirmed through the FTIR and XPS techniques. For the first time, these modified CaO catalysts have been employed to carry out the transesterification reaction of glycerol and dimethyl carbonate forming glycerol carbonate. Under the optimized reaction conditions, benzyl modified CaO catalyst showed better catalytic activity yielding 82 % glycerol carbonate with 100 % selectivity. The 0.5‐Ben/CaO catalyst is found to resist the presence of 5 wt% H 2 O content in the reaction due to the formation of hydrophobic layer by the benzyl functionalization over the CaO surface. The humidity test also reveals that the modified CaO showed better resistance to moisture adsorption than its native counterpart.