Functionalising of carbon/silica composite from bamboo leaves to convert polyethylene glycol monolaurate into 2-chloroethyl benzoate

In Malaysia, bamboo leaves are considered as agriculture waste and has been increasing every year due to less application in industry. In this study, bamboo leaves generated carbon/silica to be used as solid acid catalyst. The polyethylene glycol monolaurate was mainly used in cosmetic and food industry. The waste from this polymer was used as a substrate in this study. The sulfonated carbon/silica (SO3H-C/Sio2) composite was utilized as a heterogeneous acid catalyst to synthesis 2- chloroethyl benzoate. The bamboo leaves were carbonized at four different temperatures (300°C, 350°C, 400°C and 450°C). Sulfonation process was carried out to introduce sulfonic acid group. By using XRD, TGA and FTIR techniques, the physiochemical properties of SO3H-C/Sio2 were determined. XRD result proved that, these catalysts were amorphous. When carbonisation temperature increased, the ratio of C/SiO2was decreased, as verified by TGA. In FTIR result, it verified that the functional group such as S=O, C=C and COOH were decreased when the carbonisation temperature was higher. The best catalyst during catalytic reaction between polyethylene glycol monolaurate and benzoyl chloride was SO3H-C/SiO2-450 with 96% conversion and 18% yield of product.