Ferrospinels of nickel, cobalt and copper and their sulphated analogues were prepared by the room temperature coprecipitation
route to yield samples with high surface areas. The intrinsic acidity among the ferrites was found to decrease in
the order: cobalt> nickel> copper. Sulphation caused an increase in the number of weak and medium strong acid sites,
whereas the strong acid sites were left unaffected. Electron donor studies revealed that copper ferrite has both the highest
proportion of strong sites and the lowest proportion of weak basic sites. All the ferrite samples proved to be good catalysts
for the benzoy lation of toluene with benzoyl chloride. copper and cobalt ferrites being much more active than nickel ferrite.
The catalytic activity for benzoylation was not much influenced by sulphation, but it increased remarkably with calcination
temperature of the catalyst. Surface Lewis acid sites, provided by the octahedral cations on the spinel surface, are suggested
to be responsible for the catalytic activity for the benzoylation reaction.