Choline Chloride Catalyzed Amidation of Fatty Acid Ester to Monoethanolamide: A Green Approach

Abstract

Choline chloride catalyzed efficient method for amidation of fatty acid methyl ester to monoethanolamide respectively. This is a solvent free, ecofriendly, 100% chemo selective and economically viable path for alkanolamide synthesis. The Kinetics of amidation of methyl ester were studied and found to be first order with respect to the concentration of ethanolamine. The activation energy (E_a) for the amidation of lauric acid methyl ester catalyzed by choline chloride was found to be 50.20 KJ mol^–1. The 98% conversion of lauric acid monoethanolamide was obtained at 110°C in 1 h with 6% weight of catalyst and 1:1.5 molar ratio of methyl ester to ethanolamine under nitrogen atmosphere.