Bifunctional catalysts supported on polymers for the preparation of bisphenol A

This work is relative to attempts for obtaining acid-thiol supported polyme rs that may be used as solid bifunctional catalysts, active in the Bispheno l A synthesis. Five approaches are tested with modified sulphonic styrene-b ased polymers obtained either by multi-polymerisation in one or several ste ps and derivatization. The objective is to get simultaneously sufficient ca pacity and high selectivity, by using an adequate acid/thiol ratio, and enh anced sites accessibility via an optimisation of the morphology. Reactivity results are favourably compared to those obtained in a homogeneous process .