Investigation of Catalytic Activity of a Sulfonated Aluminum-Based Metal-Organic Framework: Design of Oleic Acid Esterification With Response Surface Methodology

Abstract In this study, the synthesis of MIL-53(Al) (Material Institute Lavoisier, MIL) material, which is an aluminum-containing metal-organic framework (MOF) and generally produced using the solvothermal method was carried out by microwave method at different synthesis times (30-180 min) and temperatures (120-180 °C). In order to improve the catalytic activity of the MIL-53(Al), it was functionalized by applying sulfonation process and SO3-MIL-53(Al) material was also provided. It has been observed that the changing in the synthesis time and temperature cause changes in the morphologies, surface areas and thermal resistance. The highest surface area value was obtained as 1256.3 m2/g at 180 °C-180 min synthesis condition. MIL-53(Al) and SO3-MIL-53(Al) were investigated as catalysts for the esterification of the oleic acid with methanol by designing response surface methodology (RSM). The SO3-MIL-53(Al) catalyst provided higher conversion of oleic acid to ester than MIL-53(Al) as 97.2% and 65.9%, respectively.