Abstract
Abstract In this work, the grapheme oxide (GO) and GO/ZnO nanocomposite were successfully obtained from the oxidation of graphite and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). In the GO/ZnO nanocomposite, the GO sheets were coated with aggregated ZnO nanoneedles with ca. 20 nm of diameter. The obtained materials were used as heterogeneous catalysts for acetylation of Soybean Fatty Acids Methyl Esters (FAME), promoting the epoxy ring-opening using acetic anhydride. The epoxy ring was almost completely opened in the presence of GO or GO/ZnO nanocomposites, with conversion rates up to 99% and selectivity of ca. 90%, and partially opened using only ZnO. The GO/Zn and GO catalysts were reused three times with conversion rates of ca. 85 and 74%, respectively.
Highlights
Graphene oxide (GO) and related materials such as graphene/metal oxide composites have received great attention due to their low cost, easy obtainability and compatibility with various substrates (Nie et al, 2016; Sakthivel et al, 2017)
After the Fatty Acids Methyl Esters (FAME) epoxidation, the oxirane ring opening was performed by acetylation reaction (Oliveira et al, 2017), in which FAME epoxide (1,0 g) was mixed with acetic anhydride (1,0 g) and different amounts of GO, zinc oxide (ZnO) and GO/ZnO catalysts were added to the mixture under stirring in a Schlenk tube at 120 oC for 12 h or 24 h
The GO sheets were decorated with aggregated ZnO nanoneedles with ca. 20 nm of diameter, in which the ZnO nanoparticles were mainly located at the edge of the GO sheets
Summary
Graphene oxide (GO) and related materials such as graphene/metal oxide composites have received great attention due to their low cost, easy obtainability and compatibility with various substrates (Nie et al, 2016; Sakthivel et al, 2017). The relatively acid catalysts GO and GO/ZnO were used in the ring-opening reaction of epoxidized soybean FAME.
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