Preliminary study on carboxylation reaction of phenylacetylene with CO₂ using nickel catalyst impregnated on mesoporous carbon

In this research, carboxylation reaction of phenylacetylene with CO₂has been studied using impregnated nickel on mesoporous carbon as catalyst. Mesoporous carbon was successfully synthesized using a soft template method with Pluronic F127 as pore template, and formaldehyde and phloroglucinol as the carbon source. This material was characterized with Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) analysis. Characterization with XRD shows the presence of two peaks at 24.26° and 42.76° which denotes the typical peak of graphite-like carbon. BET surface area analysis shows that the mesoporous carbon has a pore size distribution of 7.2 nm and surface area of 432.15 m²/g. Modification of mesoporous carbon was carried out by impregnation of Ni metal into mesoporous carbon (Ni@MC) through reduction of Ni(II) with ethylene glycol. The Ni@MC catalyst was used as a catalyst in the carboxylation reaction of phenylacetylene with CO₂. The reactions were carried out in a batch reactor under various reaction conditions. High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) analysis of the product mixtures revealed that the highest yield of trans-cinnamic acid (2.83 %) was achieved at 85 °C for 12 h reaction time.