Solvent free epoxidation of vernonia oil using Ti-SBA-15 with tailor made particle morphology and pore size

Publication date: Available online 19 September 2019Source: Catalysis TodayAuthor(s): Yaregal Awoke, Yonas Chebude, Carlos Márquez-Álvarez, Isabel DíazAbstractVernonia galamensis is a native weed of Ethiopia containing high concentration of naturally epoxidized oil (glyceryl trivernolate) in its seeds, which could be used as a potential substitute for currently used epoxy oils. Apart from an epoxy group, vernolic acid contains a double bond that could be further epoxidized yielding a low viscosity, high oxirane, non-edible oil. Epoxidized vegetable oils are usually produced at industrial scale mainly by the peracid process. Soluble mineral acids are essential for this process but these acidic components lead to several drawbacks. Our study deals with a solvent free epoxidation of vernonia oil using heterogeneous catalysts. Ordered mesoporous materials are good candidates as catalysts for epoxidation reactions of large molecules such as vernonia oil (MW =926 g/mol). The aim of this work is to obtain titanium containing SBA-15 catalysts with tunable pore size and convenient particle morphology to avoid diffusion problems. Titanium was incorporated in SBA-15 catalysts by co-condensation as well as grafting methods in order to compare their catalytic performance. Ti-SBA-15 materials with hexagonal symmetry, surface area between 368 and 888 m2/g, high pore volume (0.75-1.41 cm3/g) and average pore diameter ranging from 7.2 to 14.3 nm have been successfully synthesized. Th...
Source: Catalysis Today - Category: Chemistry Source Type: research