ABSTRACT
Commercial sulphated zirconia is a useful solid acid catalyst for Friedel-Crafts reactions. In benzoylations the catalyst has moderate activity which is sensitive to pretreatment conditions, and shows good reusability. In the alkylation of benzene using 1-dodecene, the catalyst activity and selectivity are very impressive and comparable to aluminium chloride while not having the problems of catalyst separation and aqueous waste.
