Reaction Principle of Alcohol Ether Sulfonates by Sulfonated Alkylation Method – A Review

Abstract As a new type of high effective surfactant, aliphatic alcohol ether sulfonate has widely application prospects in the process of tertiary oil recovery. So, the theoretical analysis of synthesis of aliphatic alcohol ether sulfonate has played a very important role in the process of its development. After the first patent about the preparation of a fatty alcohol ether sulfonate surfactant was reported in 1938, there were several methods to synthesize alcohol ether sulfonate surfactants with different structure. Sulfonated alkylation, one of the synthesis methods, is introduced in this paper. The synthesis principle of alcohol ether sodium sulfonate was analyzed by three step reactions – synthesis of PTGE, ring opening reaction and sulfonation reaction. Synthesis principle of PTGE includes acid catalysis, phase-transfer catalysis, side reaction of the synthesis of glycerol ether and reaction of PTGE outcome. Ring opening reaction includes two reactions of acid catalysis and alkali catalysis.