Council of Scientific and Industrial Research

Kshudiram Mantri

Vasant Ramchandra Choudhary

Suman Kumar Jana

This invention provides a process for the selective esterfication of a tertiary alcohol(I) by an acid anhydride(II) to produce corresponding tertiary ester(III) and carboxylic acid(V), using a reusable solid catalyst(IV) comprising one or more halides of indium, gallium, zinc and iron. The process comprises: (i) contacting a mixture of (I) and (II) in the absence or presence of a non aqueous solvent with the fine particles of (IV) in a stirred batch reactor provided with a reflux water condenser at atmospheric pressure at the reaction conditions, such that the mole ratio of (II) to (I) is in the range from about 0.1 to about 10.0; the weight ratio of (IV) to (I&plus;II) is in the range from about 0.005 to about 0.5; the reaction temperature is below about 80&deg; C., and the reaction period is in the range from about 0.1 h to about 50 h; (ii) removing the solid catalyst(IV) from the reaction mixture by filtration; and (iii) reusing the separated solid catalyst for subsequent batch of the process.

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Pune, India

Kshudiram Mantri