Preparation of dichlorohydrin from glycerol using carboxyl functionalized SBA-15 as catalyst

A series of carboxyl functionalized SBA-15 is prepared by co-condensation. The synthesized mesoporous molecular sieve is characterized by XRD, BET and titration. The results suggest that carboxylic acid groups have been grafted onto the pore wall of SBA-15 and retained both structural and textural properties of SBA-15. SBA-15-COOH has higher activity and selectivity in the glycerol-based process. When the mole fraction of the carboxyl group is 20%, the catalyst exhibits the best activity. The catalyst performance has a slightly drop after being reused for five times, but the catalytic activity can be recovered by refluxed with sulphuric acid, which indicates that the catalyst has the stability and regeneration.