Sulfated niobia supported on KIT-6 as a catalyst for transesterification of groundnut oil

Abstract

Mesoporous 3D cubic KIT-6 was synthesised hydrothermally via organic template route. Different weight percentages (1, 2 and 3 %) of sulfated niobia were supported on KIT-6 by wet impregnation method and are abbreviated as 1SNK, 2SNK and 3SNK. The synthesised materials were characterized by XRD, FT-IR, BET surface area, DRS-UV Visible and TG techniques. The morphology of pure KIT-6 and SNKs were studied by SEM and HR TEM techniques. Experiments were performed with SNK catalysts for the transesterification reaction to convert the groundnut oil to fatty acid methyl ester (FAME). The product was confirmed by GC–MS. The parameters were optimized to increase the yield of FAME by altering the reaction temperature, reaction time, catalyst loading. Among the synthesized catalysts, 3SNK showed high activity than others due to high density of acid sites. Hence sulphated niobia supported KIT-6 may be better choice of catalyst for the conversion of groundnut oil to FAME.