1-Butanol → Butyl Acrylate

According to another embodiment of the invention, the olefin acid anhydrides are reacted with alcohols to give high yields of the acrylate esters at room temperature. In particular, acrylic anhydride has been reacted with a series of alcohols ranging from C-1 to C-18 to give high yields of the acrylate esters at room temperature. The synthesis of acrylate esters by the reaction of alcohols with acrylic anhydride were found to proceed essentially to completion at room temperature to yield only the desired acrylate esters. The following mechanism is proposed for this reaction: ##STR3## No significant competing reactions were observed, such as the Michael addition reactions that often accompany the production of acrylate esters under reflux conditions. The following are representative of this embodiment: (1) the reaction of n-butyl alcohol with acrylic anhydride was completed in 3.5 hours and yielded 91.2% of n-butyl acrylate; (2) the reaction of n-octyl alcohol with acrylic anhydride was completed in 4 hours to obtain an 81.3% yield of n-octyl acrylate; and (3) the reaction of cis-12,13-epoxy-cis-9-octadecenol with acrylic anhydride was completed in 55 hours to give an 88.4% yield of cis-12, 13-epoxy-cis-9-octadecenyl acrylate.