Lipase-Catalyzed Synthesis of Ethyl Hexanoate in Microemulsion System

Abstract

This paper studied lipase-catalyzed synthesis of ethyl hexanoate in dodecylbenzenesulfonic acid/isooctane/water microemulsion system. The effect of several parameters, such as w₀ ([H₂O]/[surfactant]) value, reaction time, reaction temperature, oil phase solvent, buffer solution pH value of microemulsion system on the esterification have been investigated. The results showed that the best experimental conditions for catalytic synthesis ethyl hexanoate were as follows: w₀ = 4, reaction time 4 h, reaction temperature 40 ºC, buffer solution pH 7. Under these conditions, the conversion of ethyl hexanoate can reach 98.5 %. Lipase-catalyzed synthesis of ethyl hexanoate in dodecylbenzenesulfonic acid inverse microemulsion system has triple mechanism, namely acid catalyzes, microemulsion catalyzes and enzyme catalyzes.