Effect of the Brønsted acid site strength on ionone isomer distribution

V.K. DÍEZ; C.R. APESTEGUÍA; J.I. DI COSIMO

Detroit

Congreso; 22nd North American Catalysis Society Meeting; 2011

Ionones (a,b,g) are valuable chemicals widely used in pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. Ionones are commercially produced using strong and corrosive liquid acid catalysts such as H2SO4 and therefore, attempts have been made recently to replace this technology by solid acids. However, the most valuable isomer, b-ionone, has not been produced by heterogeneous catalysis. In this work we present silica-supported catalysts containing tungstophosphoric (HPA) and triflic (TFA) acids and an Amberlyst resin for ionone synthesis. Our goal was to investigate how the strength of the Brønsted acid surface species affects the activity and mainly, the ionone isomer distribution.