Abstract:Sn-MCM-22 catalysts were synthesized using a post-synthetic method of MCM-22 zeolite with SnCl4 for converting 1,3-dihydroxyacetone (DHA) and alcohol to alkyl lactates. The characterization results of XRD, SEM, N2 adsorption-desorption, UV-Vis, Py-IR demonstrated that Sn was incorporated into the tetrahedral framework and uniformly grafted as SnO2 nanoparticles on Sn-MCM-22. Sn-MCM-22 possessed Lewis and Brønsted acid sites, and effectively catalyzed DHA to prepare alkyl lactates. The yield of methyl lactate reached 96.3 %, under the conditions: DHA methanol solution (0.25 mol/L), the reaction temperature was 120 oC, and the reaction time was 15 h. In addition, the high yields of alkyl lactates, up from 86.4% to 88.4%, were produced from ethanol, n-propanol, and n-butanol, respectively. The catalyst displays good cycling and stability performance.