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Friedel-Crafts Alkylation Of Benzene With A Superacid Catalyst, Josh T. Cutright
Friedel-Crafts Alkylation Of Benzene With A Superacid Catalyst, Josh T. Cutright
Undergraduate Honors Theses
Long-chain alkylbenzenes are industrially synthesized precursors to commercial surfactants such as laundry detergent. The currently used catalysts in the processes of their synthesis are corrosive and harmful to the environment. These problems can be avoided utilizing heterogeneous highly acidic catalysts. Solid catalysts do not corrode equipment and are relatively simple to remove from the post-reaction mixture. Phosphotungstic acid (PTA) supported on silica gel could be a possible catalyst due to its high acidity with an estimated pKa ≈ -13. The catalyst PTA-SiO2 was prepared via the sol-gel method to covalently embed it in a silica support. The catalyst was …