Synthesis catalyst and synthesis method for unsaturated carboxylic acid and/or derivative thereof

Abstract

It is an object of the present invention to provide a catalyst, which solves a problem in that when an unsaturated carboxylic acid or a derivative thereof has been conventionally synthesized from a hydroxycarboxylic acid or a derivative thereof by a dehydration reaction using a catalyst, the yield has been low, and which is capable of synthesizing the unsaturated carboxylic acid or a derivative thereof at a high yield, and also to provide a synthetic method capable of synthesizing an unsaturated carboxylic acid or a derivative thereof at a high yield. A synthetic catalyst for synthesizing an unsaturated carboxylic acid and/or a derivative thereof from a hydroxycarboxylic acid and/or a derivative thereof by a dehydration reaction, wherein the synthetic catalyst comprises an apatite compound containing an alkali metal in a crystal structure thereof, and a method for synthesizing an unsaturated carboxylic acid and/or a derivative thereof, which method comprises contacting the aforementioned synthetic catalyst with the hydroxycarboxylic acid and/or a derivative thereof, so as to synthesize the unsaturated carboxylic acid and/or a derivative thereof by a dehydration reaction.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.