Hydroxyethyl Acrylate (HEA) is an important raw material for chemical production, which is widely used in coatings, inks, adhesives, plastics and other fields. A common manufacturing method of hydroxyethyl acrylate will be introduced below.
I. Raw material preparation
1. Acrylic acid: industrial grade acrylic acid with 99% mass fraction.
2. Ethanol: industrial grade ethanol, mass fraction 95%.
3. Catalyst: sulfuric acid or p-toluenesulfonic acid.
2. Equipment preparation
1. Reactor: with stirring, heating and cooling functions.
2. Condenser: used to recover the water generated in the reaction.
3. Water separator: used to separate water and organic phase.
4. Vacuum pump: used for vacuum pumping to promote the reaction.
3. Manufacturing steps
1. Add acrylic acid and ethanol into the reactor according to a certain molar ratio, generally the molar ratio of acrylic acid to ethanol is 1:1.1~1.5.
2. Add catalyst, generally the dosage of catalyst is 0.5%~1% of the mass of acrylic acid.
3. Turn on the stirring and heat the reactor to a certain temperature, generally at 60～80℃.
4. The water generated during the reaction process is recovered through condenser, and the organic phase is separated from the water through water separator and refluxed to the reactor.
5. After a certain reaction time, take samples to test the content of hydroxyethyl acrylate, when the content reaches a predetermined value, stop the reaction.
6. Cool the reactor to room temperature, pour the reaction solution into a separatory funnel and wash with water until neutral.
7. Dry the organic phase with anhydrous sodium sulfate and filter to obtain the crude hydroxyethyl acrylate.
4. Post-treatment
1. Distillation: The crude hydroxyethyl acrylate was distilled, and the products of the specified fractions were collected to obtain pure hydroxyethyl acrylate.
2. Detection: Conduct quality test on the hydroxyethyl acrylate obtained by distillation, including purity, color, acid value and other indexes.
V. Precautions
1. Strictly control the reaction temperature and time to avoid the occurrence of side reactions.
2. The amount of catalyst should be appropriate, too much will lead to equipment corrosion, too little may affect the reaction rate.
3. Attention should be paid to safety during operation to avoid contact with skin and eyes.
The above is a common manufacturing method of hydroxyethyl acrylate, the specific operation should be adjusted and optimized according to the actual production situation.
