Synthesis of isoamyl salicylate using a novel mesoporous titania superacid as a catalyst

Mesoporous titania was prepared by hydrothermal method and mesoporous titania solid superacid catalyst was prepared by wet impregnation method. The structure and property of the as-prepared catalysts were characterized by means of XRD, FT-IR and N₂ physical adsorption. Isoamyl salicylate was synthesized by using concentrated sulfuric acid and solid superacid as catalyst, respectively. The effects of the molar ratio of raw material, the amount of catalyst, reaction time and reaction temperature on the yield of the product were systematically investigated. The results show that mesoporous titania solid superacid is a good catalyst for synthesizing isoamyl salicylate. The optimum conditions of isoamyl salicylate synthesized by using mesoporous titania solid superacid are the following: the molar ratio of salicylic acid to isoamyl alcohol is 1: 4, the quantity of catalyst is 1.6 g, the reaction time is 5 h, the reaction temperature is 130 °C and the yield can reach 94.6%.