ZrOCl2·8H2O: An Efficient, Cheap and Reusable Catalyst for the Esterification of Acrylic Acid and Other Carboxylic Acids with Equimolar Amounts of Alcohols

Esterifications of carboxylic acids with equimolar amount of alcohols could beefficiently catalyzed by ZrOCl2·8H2O. Acrylate esters were obtained in good yields undersolvent-free conditions at ambient temperature. The esterification of other carboxylicacids with alcohols also proceeded at ambient temperature or at 50 oC to afford esters inhigh yields. If the esterification was performed in toluene under azeotropic refluxconditions to remove water, both the catalytic activity of ZrOCl2·8H2O and the rate ofesterification could be increased greatly. Furthermore, in the present catalytic system, theesters could be easily separated from the reaction mixtures and the catalyst could beeasily recovered and reused.