Carboxymethylation of cinnamylalcohol with dimethyl carbonate over the slag-based catalysts

The carboxymethylation of cinnamylalcohol with dimethyl carbonate was performed using low-cost catalysts obtained from desulfurization slag. Processing of steel slag performed by different techniques was resulted in a wide range of the catalysts with different morphological and structural properties. Catalytic evaluation of the slag catalysts illustrated diversity of the obtained results strongly dependent on the surface area, crystal morphology and basicity. Catalytic materials demonstrated high variability of the conversion (8–85%) exhibiting similar selectivity to the desired product – cinnamyl methyl carbonate (ca. 80%). A significant impact of ultrasonication on catalytic activity was observed. Comparison of the synthesized samples with commercial basic materials illustrated competitive ability of the slag catalysts. Based on the results of catalytic evaluation and product analysis the reaction network was proposed and verified by thermodynamic analysis. A kinetic model was developed to describe concentration dependencies in carboxymethylation.