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Updated: Jan 25, 2026
Synthesis of Esters Via a Greener Steglich Esterification in Acetonitrile
Published on: October 30, 2018
Ultrasound-Assisted Heterogeneous Synthesis of Bio-Based Oligo-Isosorbide Glycidyl Ethers: Towards Greener Epoxy
Corentin Musa1, Pierre-Edouard Danjou2, Antoine Pauwels3
1Unité de Chimie Environnementale et Interactions sur le Vivant, Université du Littoral Côte d'Opale, 145 Avenue Maurice Schumann, MREI 1, 59140 Dunkerque, France. corentin.musa@gmail.com.
Abstract:
The substitution of toxic precursors such as bisphenol A by renewable and safer molecules has become a major challenge. To overcome this challenge, the 12 principles of green chemistry should be taken into account in the development of future sustainable chemicals and processes. In this context, this paper reports the highly efficient synthesis of oligo-isosorbide glycidyl ethers from bio-based starting materials by a rapid one-pot heterogeneous ultrasound-assisted synthesis. It was demonstrated that the use of high-power ultrasound in solvent-free conditions with sodium hydroxide microbeads led for the first time to a fully epoxidated prepolymer with excellent epoxy equivalent weight (EEW). The structure of the epoxy precursor was characterized by FT-IR, NMR spectroscopy and high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS). The efficiency of the ultrasound-assisted synthesis was attributed to the physical effects caused by micro-jets on the surface of the solid sodium hydroxide microspheres following the asymmetrical collapse of cavitation bubbles.
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Ethers can be prepared from organic compounds by various methods. Some of them are discussed below,
Preparation of Ethers by Alcohol Dehydration
In this method, in the presence of protic acids, alcohol dehydrates to produce alkenes and ethers under different conditions. For example, in the presence of sulphuric acid, dehydration of ethanol at 413 K yields ethoxyethane, whereas it yields ethene at 443 K.
02:28Structure and Nomenclature of Ethers
Ethers are organic compounds with an ether functional group which is characterized by an oxygen atom connected to two — identical or different — alkyl, aryl, or vinyl groups. The C–O–C linkage in dimethyl ether — the simplest ether — has an approximately tetrahedral bond angle of 110.3 degrees. The oxygen atom is sp3- hybridized, with the C–O distance being about 140 pm.
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Based on their attached substituent...
02:36Crown Ethers
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02:17Physical Properties of Ethers
An ether molecule has a net dipole moment due to the polarity of C–O bonds. Subsequently, boiling points of ethers are lower than those of alcohols of comparable molecular weight and slightly higher than those of hydrocarbons of comparable molecular weight (Table 1).
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02:23Autoxidation of Ethers to Peroxides and Hydroperoxides