Synthesis of 2-butoxyethanol using novel mixed metal oxide catalysts

Abstract 2-butoxyethanol is used as wetting and emulsifying agent, solvent, and chemical reagent which produces by the ethoxylation of n-butanol. The use of a suitable catalyst is very significant in the purification of the final product. The mixed metal oxide catalysts were assessed for this ethoxylation. They have wide applications as catalysts because of their reactive sites. This research aims to study alcohol ethoxylation on two prepared heterogeneous catalysts which were were based on Mg-Sr-Al mixed metal oxides (AMS) and the one of them was modified by vanadium pentoxide (AMSV). The heterogeneous catalysts composites were synthesized using the co-precipitation method, calcined at 550°C and characterized by FESEM, XRD, FTIR, CO2-TPD, and BET analyses. In addition, gas chromatography was used to characterize 2-butoxyethanol. The heterogeneous catalysts were compared with a conventional type of homogeneous catalyst (potassium hydroxide) in term of catalytic yield, selectivity and conversion for 2-butoxyethanol preparation. The highest specific activities were observed on gas chromatography results for the catalyst with vanadium pentoxide content rather than other. After modifying the reaction condition, the AMSV catalyst exhibited higher conversion of 71.3% with the best selectivity of 67.88%. These results have been shown to be an efficient solid basic catalyst for the synthesis of 2-butoxyethanol.