Nano-Sized and -Crystalline Sulfated Zirconia Solid Acid Catalysts for Organic Synthesis

Abstract

Sulfated Zirconia (SZ) has opened up a very interesting area for application predominantly as catalyst for various acid catalyzed organic syntheses and transformation reactions. Catalytic properties of SZ vary with methods of preparation. Lot of efforts is made to modify SZ to increase reactivity and stability of the catalyst. This review focuses on the individual synthesis routes to prepare nano-sized and –crystalline SZ, short discussion on its characterization and exhaustive survey on its utility in organic chemistry for the development of new synthetic methodologies, which provide simple direction having enormous practical significance. As can be realized, the nano-sized and –crystalline SZ as solid acid catalyst exhibits exceptionally better catalytic activity and selectivity for the synthesis of trisubstituted and tetrasubstituted imidazoles, acetyl salicylic acid, dypnone, esterification of acetic acid, caprylic acid and so on.