Porous K2Ti8O17 Nanoparticles for High-Efficiency Heterogeneous Catalytic Transesterification

Liquid-blocked phenolic 2-ethylentvl 3-(3,5-di-tert-butyl-4-hydroxphheny)propanoate (EDHP) is commonly utilized as an antioxidant in industrial lubricants to increase the service life of lubricating oil. The conventional homogeneous catalytic transesterification method for preparing EDHP necessitates a significant amount of organic solvents for treating the intermediate, resulting in substantial labor and material costs, ultimately increasing application expenses. Here, a series of porous potassium titanate (K 2 Ti 8 O 1 7 , KTiO) nanoparticles with varying specific surface area (BET) and pore diameter distributions were developed by a simple hydrothermal calcination method for highly efficient and selective catalysis in the transesterification synthesis of EDHP. Transesterification results indicate that Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) significantly impacts the catalytic performance of KTiO, leading to a conversion rate of methyl 3-(3,5-di-tert-butyl-4-hydroxyphenyl)propionate (MDHP) reaching 98.3% and the selectivity reaching 99.70% in the presence of KTiO-400 catalyst at 1 7 5 ∘ C . The transesterification time of heterogeneous catalysis is 2.5 h, which is comparable to that of commercial homogeneous catalysis (tetrabutyl titanate, TBOT), owing to the high BET (182.42 m 2 g − 1 ) of KTiO-400. Current research demonstrates that the use of porous KTiO nanoparticles represents a significant advancement in the field of heterogeneous catalytic organic synthesis and expands the potential applications of nano-titanate in industrial catalysis.