Aldol Condensation Of HMF And Acetone Over Mg-Al Layered Double Hydroxides And Mixed Oxides

The main aim of the work is to synthesize six different types of calcined layered double hydroxides and use them as catalysts for aldol condensation of hydroxymethylfurfural and acetone.The three layered double hydroxides were Mg-Al in different ratios and the other three were Zn-Al,Ni-Al and Mg-Al-Zr.The first three catalysts were prepared by urea precipitation method and the final three catalysts were prepared by titration method while the pH is maintained at 9-10.All the six catalysts were calcined and the mixed oxides were reconstructed to form the calcined layered double hydroxides(CLDH).Both the LDH and CLDH were analysed by different techniques like thermal gravimetric analysis,scanning electron microscopy,Transmission electron microscopy,powder XRD,BET and elemental analysis.Another part of the work was to use the CLDH as catalyst and examine the selective formation of mono condensation and di condensation product of HMF and acetone.The condensation was carried out with all the six catalysts under various experimental conditions in presence of different solvents.Among all the experiments conducted the most optimal catalyst was found to be Mg4Al-CO3-2 CLDH which furnished mono condensed product selectively in good yield.The optimised solvent was found to be acetone.The conversion of the products was obtained by gas chromatography.The final product was analysed by spectroscopic techniques like proton NMR and C-13 NMR.