Low-temperature esterification to produce oleic acid-based wax esters catalyzed by 4-dodecylbenzenesulfonic acid

Abstract

Synthesized oleic acid-based wax esters (e.g., cetyl oleate), which can replace spermaceti oil or jojoba oil, have been widely used in the cosmetic, pharmaceutical and other industries. In this work, 4-dodecylbenzenesulfonic acid (DBSA) has been successfully used as an efficient catalyst to synthesize oleic acid-based wax esters through esterification at 40◦C under solvent-free conditions. A 93.6% conversion rate of cetyl alcohol was obtained under optimal conditions: 10 mol% DBSA, a molar ratio of 1.3:1 oleic acid to alcohol, a reaction temperature 40◦C and a reaction time of 4 h. The effect of water content on esterification was investigated, and it was found that the inhibitory effect of water decreased significantly with increasing temperature. Moreover, DBSA-catalyzed esterification could be applied in the production of various oleic acid-based wax esters and excellent conversion (>90%) to esters was obtained under such mild conditions. DBSA-catalyzed low-temperature esterification is an efficient method for the production of liquid wax esters.