Strontium titanium trioxide doped magnetic graphene oxide as a nanocatalyst for biodiesel production from waste cooking oil

Abstract

In the synthesis of biodiesel, the revelation of innovative heterogeneous catalyst substances with distinct chemical/physical characteristics has gained considerable interest. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the potential of bimetal layered strontium-titanium trioxide (SrTiO3) doped on graphene oxide-based iron oxide nanoparticles as a novel heterogeneous catalyst (IGO@SrTi) for the production of biodiesel from acidic waste cooking oil (WCO). The morphology of IGO@SrTi nanocomposite was characterized using SEM, EDX, XRD, and FT-IR.. In addition, various parameters such as the molar proportion of feedstock to methanol, reaction temperature, and contact time were examined. The ranges for influence factors were reaction temperature (25–120 °C), methanol/oil (M/O) mole fraction (1:1–10:1), contacting duration (10–180 min), and catalyst concentration (0.01–0.5 g). Within 180 min, using a 10:1 M ratio of methanol to oil and a reaction temperature of 120 °C, a 96 % FAME production was achieved using 10 wt% catalysts under the reaction conditions. The findings indicated that the IGO@SrTi nanocomposite can be employed successfully as a stable heterogeneous catalyst under the optimum condition with excellent catalytic efficiency (>90 %) and simplicity in separation.