Abstract: The technology of synthesizing terpineyl acetate has been studied by using the method of batch-wise microwave irradiation. The results showed that the optimized conditions were as the follows: ratio of acetic anhydride to terpineol was 1.25:1, 4% acetic anhydride and phosphoric acid were used as catalyst (based on terpineol mass) under 100 W microwave, and irradiation time was 2 h. The conversion of terpineol was 96.92% and the yield of terpineyl acetate was 86.53% under optimum conditions. Compared with normal methods, it had higher efficiency, only one eighth reaction time of normal method was needed.

Key words: microwave irradiation, terpineol, acetylizing, terpineyl acetate