NaAlO2 supported on titanium dioxide as solid base catalyst for the carboxymethylation of allyl alcohol with DMC

NaAlO2-based heterogeneous catalyst efficiently convert allyl alcohol and dimethyl carbonate with high selectivity to allyl methyl carbonate. While sodium aluminate is highly active for the synthesis of such unsymmetrical carbonate, its handling is problematic because it is highly corrosive and hygroscopic. Here a simple impregnation method is applied to obtain NaAlO2/TiO2 catalysts, which are characterized by XRD, N2-physisorption, Raman spectroscopy, SEM, TGA, CO2-DRIFTS and CO2-TPD. The carboxymethylation activity of these impregnated catalysts linearily correlates with their NaAlO2 content. Yet, the catalyst loaded with only 20% active phase reaches the same activity as that of the pure NaAlO2 phase. Importantly, our study demonstrates that this solid base catalyst is truly heterogeneous, stable, and reusable, paving the way to other potential applications in organic synthesis