A Mini-Review on Solid Acid Catalysts for Esterification Reactions

This paper presents an overview of research pertaining to solid acid catalysts for esterification reactions. Prominence has been given to the literatures that have been appeared during the last two decades. A variety of reactions catalyzed by solid acid catalysts have been tabulated according to their broad classification; industrially important reactions have been outlined. Examples, where the use of various solid acid catalysts have led to an improvement in the selectivity of the desired products, have also been discussed. Various catalyzed esterification reactions using different approaches and previous kinetic studies have been reviewed. Types, preparation and synthesis of various solid acid catalysts have been reviewed and discussed. Suggestions have been summarized for their implementation in future work. © 2016, The Institution of Engineers (India).