Investigation of the catalytic efficiency of a new mesoporous catalyst SnO 2/WO 3 towards oleic acid esterification

Abstract

The synthesis of a new, effective and reusable heterogeneous catalyst, mesoporous SnO 2/WO 3 (SW) to promote the esterification involving oleic acid and ethanol for the production of ethyl oleate is presented here. The developed mesoporous SnO 2/WO 3 with surface area of 130 m 2/g and pore size of 3.9 nm exhibits up to 90% conversion of oleic acid (for 2 h reaction, at 80 °C) with high yield (∼92%) to the ethyl oleate, a product of the esterification reaction of oleic acid. The catalyst exhibits a comparable activity of H 2SO 4, which is a known catalyst for esterification of organic acids. Kinetic investigation reveals that the experimental data follows a first order dependency on the concentration of the oleic acid and the catalyst. The conversion of oleic acid also has noticeable dependency on the reaction temperatures and different alcohols. Regeneration through heating of the used mesoporous SnO 2/WO 3 catalyst at 400 °C for 3 h allows it for reuse without losing of its catalytic activity.