Study on the transesterification and mechanism of bisphenol A and dimethyl carbonate catalyzed by organotin oxide

(CF3C6H4)2SnO, (CH3C6H4)2SnO and Ph2SnO were successfully synthesized for the transesterification of DMC with BPA. The products of mono-methylcarbonate-ended-BPA (MmC(1)) and two-methylcarbonate-ended-BPA (DmC(1)) were selectively synthesized over them. The catalysts were characterized by FT-IR, TG and XPS. When Ph2SnO was used as the catalyst at 170 °C, the BPA conversion reached to 28.60% and the transesterification selectivity reached to 98.35%. As for (CF3C6H4)2SnO, BPA conversion and transesterification selectivity declined to 12.48% and 64.74%, respectively. The BPA conversion increased to 42.83%, but the transesterification selectivity declined to 44.55% over (CF3C6H4)2SnO. Notability, the higher transesterification selectivity of Ph2SnO was due to its lowest electron binding energy of Sn4+. More importantly, the DMC adsorption, activation and decomposition process over (CF3C6H4)2SnO, (CH3C6H4)2SnO and Ph2SnO were characterized by TG–MS and in situ DRIFT techniques, which provided more information about the mechanism of transesterification and methylation.