Highly selective synthesis of 2-butoxy ethanol over Mg/Al/V mixed oxides catalysts derived from hydrotalcites

The catalytic activity of a series of mixed oxides obtained by the thermal decomposition of hydrotalcite-like precursors was assessed for the alkoxyla tion of n-butanol with ethylene oxide. The calcination products of a decava nadate intercalated magnesium-aluminium layered double hydroxide were shown to possess extremely high activity for the alkoxylation reaction achieving up to 100% conversion in batch reaction. In all cases, the catalysts exhib it a much higher selectivity towards the monoglycol adduct than that obtain ed with the industrial catalyst.