Transesterification of glyceryl tributyrate with methanol using strontium borate as the solid base catalyst

Abstract

Four kinds of strontium borates were prepared and characterized by XRD, SEM, EDS, TG-DTA and Hammett titration method, and their catalytic activities were examined in the transesterification of glyceryl tributyrate with methanol for the first time. The separate effects of the molar ratio of methanol to oil, the reaction time, and reusability were investigated. In addition, the catalytic activities of Sr(OH)2 and SrCO3 were also examined for the comparison. The results showed that the basicity and catalytic activity of these catalysts were decreased as the following order: Sr(OH)2 > SrB2O4·4H2O > SrB6O10·5H2O > SrB2O4 > SrB6O10 > SrCO3, and the reusability decreases as the following order: anhydrous strontium borates (SrB2O4, SrB6O10) > hydrated strontium borates (SrB2O4·4H2O, SrB6O10·5H2O) > Sr(OH)2. The results indicate that the SrB2O4·4H2O with regular morphology, which was obtained at low temperature by a simple preparation method, might be as one kind of good potential alkaline earth salts catalyst for transesterification. Moreover, the possible reaction mechanism is proposed and analyzed.