A novel Brönsted-Lewis acidic heteropoly organic-inorganic salt: preparation and catalysis for rosin dimerization.

A novel Brönsted-Lewis acidic heteropoly organic-inorganic salt has been prepared via the replacement of protons in neat phosphotungstic acid with both organic and metal cations. This hybrid catalyst, Sm0.33[TEAPS]2PW12O40, exhibited satisfactory performance in the dimerization of rosin to prepare polymerized rosin Under optimum conditions (15.0 g rosin and 5.0 g Sm0.33[TEAPS]2PW12O40 catalyst in 18.0 mL toluene at 90 °C for 10 h), a polymerized rosin product with a softening point of 120.1 °C was obtained. In addition, the Sm0.33[TEAPS]2PW12O40 catalyst maintains excellent catalytic performance over five recycles.