Synthesis of Unsymmetrical Ethers Catalysed by Polyvinyl Sulfuric Acid & PVSA / Nano RH SiO2 as a Novel Solid Acid Nanocomposite

The methodology involves preparing polyvinyl sulfuric acid as a solid acid by simple mixing ofpolyvinyl alcohol with chlorosulfonic acid in CH2Cl2 at room temperature. The catalytic ability ofthe solid acid was investigated for the facile conversion of benzylic alcohols to the unsymmetricalethers with aliphatic alcohols in the presence of the solid acid. Results show that the solid acid isan appropriate catalytic agent for these condensation reactions. The silica was also extracted fromlow-cost rice husk and the amorphous silica gel nanoparticles were prepared with sol- gel method.The polyvinyl sulfuric acid was supported on nano rice husk silica. Then the catalytic effect of thissystem was investigated for synthesis of unsymmetrical ethers which consisted of a combination ofhigh acidic power for this solid acid and high- surface area of nanoparticles. Results show that totallycatalytic effect of polyvinyl sulfuric acid supported on nano silica is more suitable than polyvinylsulfuric acid. The reason for this is in its ability to produce the end products in shorter reaction timeswhile having high isolated yields.