Abstract

Glycerol was successfully used as a green solvent and as an acyl acceptor in the transesterification of benzylacetate using representatives' soluble and solid base catalysts. It was found that increasing the reaction temperature, the reaction time, the substrate concentration or the catalysts loading increased the yield of benzyl alcohol. Using glycerol as a solvent also enabled the separation of product by simple extraction with diethyl ether and catalyst recycling.

Keywords: Base catalyst, glycerol, green solvent, transesterification, acetate, benzyl, acyl, acceptor, alcoholysis, isoamyl acetate