Abstract
Conversion efficiency as high as 80–100% and 50% selectivity for camphene and limonene was achieved with low production of polymeric byproducts (18–28%), easy recovery with a magnet and reuse for up to five cycles maintaining similar activity and distribution of products, using a new magnetically recyclable catalyst based on niobium oxide coated on superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPION) impregnated with phosphotungstic acid (HPW). The catalyst was demonstrated to be effective in the selective conversion of alpha and beta-pinenes into valuable terpenes, under ultrasonic probe activation and with toluene as solvent. A unique synergic effect between the components generating more active and selective catalytic sites was demonstrated, indicating that the SPION covered with 30 wt% of Nb2O5 gives the best performance when impregnated with HPW as co-catalyst. The materials were fully characterized by XRD, EDX, XPS, TEM, BET, VSM and FTIR.
Highlights
Bio-based products and biofuels are commonly seen as sustainable alternatives to chemicals derived from petroleum and related fossil fuels
Conversion efficiency as high as 80–100% and 50% selectivity for camphene and limonene was achieved with low production of polymeric byproducts (18–28%), easy recovery with a magnet and reuse for up to five cycles maintaining similar activity and distribution of products, using a new magnetically recyclable catalyst based on niobium oxide coated on superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPION) impregnated with phosphotungstic acid (HPW)
The EDX spectrum of a typical SPION-Nb30 sample is shown in Fig. 4 indicating that it is constituted by 66% of Fe and 33% of Nb, in good agreement with the relative proportion of 69.8 wt% of cubic magnetite and 29.1 wt% of monoclinic Nb2O5 phases determined by X-ray diffractometry (XRD) analysis
Summary
Bio-based products and biofuels are commonly seen as sustainable alternatives to chemicals derived from petroleum and related fossil fuels. Products obtained from microorganisms and plants such as lignocellulose biomass, lipids and carbohydrates have proven to be a recent and strong promise for a more sustainable society.[1,2,3] Terpenes, such as turpentine oil (mixture of a- and b-pinene), mainly extracted from coniferous trees, is an example of biomass that has caught the attention of many researchers in the past 25 years. Industrial production of camphene is carried out in a closed system under relatively high temperatures (150–170 C) and moderate yields ranging from 35% to 45%, using an acidic TiO2 catalyst.[11] the development of more efficient and selective catalysts for conversion of pinenes to terpenes is relevant
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