In this investigation, isophthalate derivatives were prepared by the reaction of isophthaloyl dichloride with various alcohol derivatives using ZrOCl2 as an efficient, green and a heterogeneous catalyst under microwave irradiation and solvent-free condition. Optimization of the reaction condition was studied by the response surface method (Box Behnken Design (BBD)) with three replicates at a central point for developing a second order model. Predicting response values using the obtained model were in a good accordance with the experimental results. Clean reaction, easy workup procedure, the reusability of the catalyst, short reaction times and high yields were some advantages of this work. (C) 2014 Published by Elsevier B.V.