Investigation of the reaction kinetics and optimized preparation process for high-purity propylene glycol methyl ether acetate

Electronic-grade propylene glycol monomethyl ether acetate (PGMEA) plays a vital role in the semiconductor industry. The direct synthesis of PGMEA from propylene glycol monomethyl ether (PM) and acetic acid (HAC) is inherently limited by reaction equilibrium constraints. The reactive distillation (RD) process effectively addresses this equilibrium limitation by utilizing an entrainer to continuously remove reaction products from the system. A significant enhancement in reaction conversion is achieved through this approach. In the reactive distillation process, PM, as one of the reactants, is utilized as the water-entraining agent, which enables simultaneous promotion of the forward reaction via water removal and prevention of impurity introduction, as no external entrainer is required. At the beginning, the reaction kinetics model for PGMEA synthesis is established to precisely elucidate the influence of temperature and concentration on the progress. Furthermore, reactive distillation experiments and process simulation studies are conducted, and two highly feasible and broadly applicable processes for high-purity PGMEA production are yielded ultimately. Through the study, a high-purity PGMEA product is provided as distillation feedstock for subsequent purification steps to achieve electronic-grade product specifications.