Kinetics of Transesterification of Methyl Acetate and n-Butanol Catalyzed by Ionic Liquid

The kinetic behavior and chemical equilibrium of the transesterification of methyl acetate with n-butanol catalyzed by an ionic liquid were investigated. The effects of reaction temperature, initial reactant molar ratio, and catalyst concentration on the reaction rate were studied. A reaction mechanism for transesterification catalyzed by ionic liquid is proposed based on Bronsted theory. Two different kinetic models, the ideal homogeneous (IH) model and the nonideal homogeneous (NTH) model, were used to correlate the kinetic data. The NIH model was able to describe the reaction rate reliably. The ionic liquid catalyst was compared with the conventional inorganic acid and ion-exchange resin catalysts sulfuric acid and Amberlyst 15, and it was found to be more active than the two conventional catalysts.