Catalytic Activity Studies of Modified Alumina in the Esterification of Benzyl Alcohol with Different Aliphatic Acids

A varied percentage of Fe, Co and Fe-Co mixtures were deposited on alumina support by dry impregnation method. The prepared materials were analyzed for their crystallinity, surface functional groups, morphology and elemental composition by P-XRD, FT-IR, and SEM-EDS techniques. Specific surface area of the catalytic materials was determined by BET technique using nitrogen as adsorbent. Further, surface acidity was estimated by TPD-NH3 and n- butylamine back titration method. The catalytic performances of these materials were checked in the esterification of benzyl alcohol with various aliphatic acids. The catalytic activity of Fe-Co/Al2O3 with 15% metal loading was found to be superior to other catalysts. The higher catalytic performance of the catalyst may be attributed to the higher surface acidity as well as synergetic effect of the metals. Further, the catalyst Fe-Co/Al2O3 (15%) was recyclable up to 5 times with negligible loss of its catalytic activity. A close relationship was noticed between surface acidity and catalytic performance of the materials.