Use of some metalferrites as catalyst in Schotten-Baumann reaction

Zinc ferrite was used to catalyse the schotten-baumann reaction of benzoyl chloride and aniline in the presence of sodium hydroxide. zinc ferrite was prepared by hydrothermal process. other magnetic ferrites (where m=ni, co, zn, and mg) were also prepared. it was characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy (fesem), x-ray diffraction spectroscopy (xrd), and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (edx). the crystalline size of zinc ferrite was found to have 6.62 nm and these are irregular in shape. the product was confirmed by m.p. and m.m.p. it was found that the yield of the product (benzanidide) in the presence of zinc ferrite was 61.3%, which is almost 2.4 times the yield obtained in the absence of catalyst. a comparative study was made with different metal ferrites as catalyst and it was found that the activity of metal ferrites followed the order:znfe2o4 (61.3%) > ni fe2o4 (51.7%) > co fe2o4 (44.5 %) > mgfe2o4 (38.0 %) > cu fe2o4 (26.2%)