Catalytic etherification of glycerol to tert-butyl glycerol ethers using tert -butanol over sulfonic acid functionalized mesoporous polymer

Mesoporous polymers (MP) were synthesized by free radical polymerization of divinylbenzene by a solvothermal method followed by sulfonic acid functionalization by a post synthetic modification with conc. H₂SO₄. MP-SO₃H was characterized by various physicochemical techniques such as FT-IR, nitrogen sorption, CHNS analysis, acid-base titration and TGA. MP-SO₃H was demonstrated to be a highly active heterogeneous acid catalyst, providing a high yielding route for the synthesis of h-GTBE through the etherification of bio-renewable glycerol with tert-butanol. MP-SO₃H containing optimum acidity and a large mesoporous surface area gave 44% h-GTBE selectivity at 86% glycerol conversion under optimized reaction conditions. The catalytic performance of MP-SO₃H was found to be superior over other conventional porous solid acid catalysts.