In the present study, a composite of Keggin-type phosphotungstic acid encapsulated in sized matched metal-organic framework UiO-67 (HPW@UiO-67) was successfully fabricated via a facile hydrothermal synthesis method and utilized for the preparation of n-butyl acetate. The as synthesized composite catalyst was comprehensively characterized using FT-IR, PXRD, ICP-OES, N2 adsorption-desorption, SEM, TEM, NH3-TPD, TGA-DTG and XPS techniques. The characterization results confirmed that HPW was successfully immobilized in metal-organic framework without changing the structure of UiO-67. The asprepared HPW@UiO-67 catalyst exhibited higher esterification activity compared to the UiO-67 catalyst due to its suitable surface area and total volume, high dispersion of phosphotungstic acid and high total acidity. The kinetic study indicated that the process followed the second-order kinetic with the activation energy Ea = 53.1 kJ/mol. The catalyst exhibited good recovery and catalytic performance in the reuse study, maintaining the conversion of acetic acid above 63.1% after four reaction cycles. Moreover, the reaction mechanism for the synthesis of n-butyl acetate via esterification over HPW@UiO-67 was proposed.
