Synthesis of dimethyl carbonate from methyl carbamate and methanol with zinc compounds as catalysts

Various zinc compounds were used as the catalysts for the synthesis of dimethyl carbonate (DMC) from methyl carbarnate (MC) and methanol in a batch reactor. Among them, ZnCl(2) showed the highest catalytic activity and led to the DMC yield of 33.6% under the optimal conditions. In addition, a possible reaction mechanism was proposed based on Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) characterization results.