Method for producing α,β-unsaturated carboxylic acid ester, α,β-unsaturated carboxylic acid ester, and lubricating oil additive

Abstract

A method for producing an α,β-unsaturated carboxylic acid ester is provided in which an alcohol (A) is caused to react with an α,β-unsaturated carboxylic acid or a lower alkyl ester (B) of the α,β-unsaturated carboxylic acid in the presence of a sulfonic acid group-carrying inorganic porous material (α), and an α,β-unsaturated carboxylic acid ester obtained by the above-described method is provided that contains not more than 50 ppm of sulfur atoms based on a weight of the α,β-unsaturated carboxylic acid ester, not more than 2 mol % of by-product etherification products and not more than 1 mol % of by-product addition products based on the mole number of the α,β-unsaturated carboxylic acid ester. Such methods are a method for producing an α,β-unsaturated carboxylic acid ester that does not involve generation of a large amount of waste products and a method for producing a high-purity α,β-unsaturated carboxylic acid ester that causes only a smaller amount of by-products to be generated, and a high-purity α,β-unsaturated carboxylic acid ester is provided that contains only a smaller amount of catalyst residues and exhibits less metal corrosion behavior.