<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:HiddenHorzOCR;mso-ansi-language:EN-IN;mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">Alkylation <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:EN-IN;mso-fareast-language:EN-IN;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">of aniline with ethanol over Zn_1-xMn_xFe₂O₄ (x= 0, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75 and 1) ferrite system</span></span>

Abstract

<i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">N</i>-Alkylation of aniline with ethanol has been studied in vapour phase, in a fixed bed reactor over Z_1-xMn_xFe₂O₄ (X= 0, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75 and 1) ferrospinel system. N-ethylaniline (NEA) and N,N-diethylanilines (NNDEA) were found to be the major products. It was observed, that, systems possessing low <i>x </i>values are highly selective

for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">N</i>-ethylaniline. Reaction parameters were optimized over ZnFe₂O₄ catalyst. A maximum yield of 53% of <i>N </i>ethylaniline with selectivity of 97% and 1.79% of <i>N, </i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">N</i>-diethylaniline with selectivity of 3% was obtained over ZnFe₂O₄ catalyst at a temperature of 503 K, ethanol to aniline molar ratio 6 and weight hour space velocity of 0.17 h^-1. Catalyst characterization has been made by XRD, IR spectroscopy and ammonia desorption methods. All catalysts show their characteristic M-O stretching bands around 700 and 500 cm^-1 associated with tetrahedral and octahedral sites respectively. All catalysts were found to show weak, medium and strong acidic sites corresponding to ammonia desorption at different temperature ranges 423-523, 523-623 and 623-723 K. A tentative mechanism for production of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">N</i>-ethylanilines has been proposed.