Effective and recoverable homogeneous catalysts for the transesterification of dimethyl carbonate with ethanol: Lanthanide triflates

The catalytic activities of metal triflates were tested for the transesterification of dimethyl carbonate (DMC) with ethanol. It was found that yttrium triflate was the most efficient homogeneous catalyst. When the transesterification reaction was catalyzed by yttrium triflate at 76–80°C, 7 h, ethanol to DMC in 6: 1 molar ratio, 0.35 mol % of catalyst based on DMC, the conversion of DMC was 89.2%, the selectivities of diethyl carbonate (DEC) and ethyl methyl carbonate (EMC) were 85.1 and 13.6%, respectively. Yttrium triflate was reused 5 times for the transesterification without loss of its catalytic activity.