Novelty of Claisen-Schmidt condensation of biomass-derived furfural with acetophenone over solid super base catalyst

Valorization of biomass into value added chemicals and products using green technologies has been a subject matter of several papers. Claisen-Schmidt condensation of furfural with acetophenone to produce the alpha,beta-unsaturated keto compound, 3-(furan-2-yl)-1-phenylprop-2-en-1-one, is commercially attractive since it is used in the pharmaceutical industry and can be hydrogenated to give high quality diesel fuel. In the current work, preparation and characterization of 5-15% w/w Al2O3 on CaO was done using FT-IR, TGA, XRD, SEM, EDXS, TPD and nitrogen BET. It was used in the reaction of furfural with acetophenone and its activity and selectivity were compared with other catalysts in a batch reactor at 120 degrees C. 15% w/w Al2O3/CaO was the best catalyst. It was 100% selective towards the formation of 3-(furan-2-yl)-1-phenylprop-2-en-1-one. The catalyst is robust and can be reused without loss of activity. The kinetics of the reaction follow the Langmuir-Hinshelwood-Hougen-Watson mechanism with weak adsorption of all species leading to typical second order kinetics. The apparent energy of activation is 12.5 kcal mol(-1).