Synthesis of butyl propionate: A possible monomer for biodegradable polymer

Abstract

As the earth passed out of global warming era and entering into the global boiling era, immediate preventive action is to be undertaken in this regard especially in the fields of energy and environment.  The monomer butyl propionate acts as a fuel additive and its polymer has biodegradable nature.  Hence butyl propionate provides one of the satisfactory answers for this problem.  In the present work, the butyl propionate is synthesized by carrying out an esterification reaction from its constituent alcohol and acid and its kinetics have been evaluated.  This reaction shows best performance in the presence of sulphuric acid catalyst.  Under the range of variables investigated, no side reactions were observed as is evident from TLC, IR and NMR analyses.  The reaction kinetics predicted from thermodynamic models was observed to be not satisfactory.