fe3o4@zro2-so3h nanoparticles for esterification of carboxylic acids

In this work preparation of sulfonic acid functionalized magnetite encapsulated zirconia (fe3o4@zro2-so3h) has been reported. structural, chemical, and magnetic properties of the magnetically supported catalyst have also been investigated by fourier transform infrared (ft-ir) spectroscopy, wide angle x-ray diffraction spectroscopy (wxrd), thermal gravimetric analysis (tga), energy dispersive x-ray analysis (edx), transmission electron microscopy (tem), vibrating sample magnetometer (vsm), hammett acidity function and ph analysis as well as brunauer-emmett-teller surface area measurement (sbet). the esterification reaction of various mono- and dicarboxylic acids with different alcohols was chosen to show the nano-catalytic activity. the reaction conditions were optimized and catalyst recovery was also demonstrated. the magnetic catalyst was magnetically separated and reused several times without significant loss of activity.