Design and synthesis of sulfonated carbons with amphiphilic properties

Abstract

A new type of sulfonated carbon material with amphiphilic properties was synthesized by the hydrothermal carbonization of a mixture of furfural–sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate at 180 °C in an autoclave. The addition of SDBS is necessary for the production of materials with long carbon chains and is possibly used to improve the solubilization of long carbon-chain and steric compounds such as pivalic acid. The resulting material was characterized by N₂ adsorption, XPS, ¹³C NMR, XRD and FTIR. The synthesized material was proven to be a highly efficient solid-acid catalyst in reactions such as the esterification of pivalic acid with alcohols, and catalytic performance much better than that of conventional solid acid catalysts, e.g. Amberlyst-15 and Nafion resin, was observed.