A Bronsted-Lewis-surfactant-combined heteropolyacid as an environmental benign catalyst for esterification reaction

A Bronsted-Lewis-surfactant-combined heteropolyacid (HPA) catalyst (C(16)TA)H4TiPW11O40 (C(16)TA = cetyltrimethyl ammonium) had been designed and used as a water-tolerantly heterogeneous catalyst in esterification of free fatty acid with a higher conversion (94.7%) and excellent efficiency (91.8% yield) due to its acidic properties and structures. This micellar polyoxometalate catalyst was stable during the reaction and can be recycled by a simple separation process. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.