Aquivion perfluorosulfonic superacid as an effective catalyst for selective epoxidation of vegetable oils

Authors:
Open Access
Publisher website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The acid-promoted epoxidation of vegetable oils was studied using a variety of acidic ion exchange resins as heterogeneous acid catalysts. Quantitative and selective epoxidation of a series of vegetable oils with different composition of saturated, mono-, di- and tri-unsaturated fatty acids was obtained upon identification of the more efficient catalyst and experimental conditions. Furthermore, optimized reaction conditions were successfully applied to the epoxidation of a waste cooking oil, thus extending our procedure to the valorization of a biowaste, an area of increasing importance within a more sustainable society. The use of quantitative 1 HNMR besides making accurate evaluation of the amounts of reagents to be employed and of the selectivity, allowed facile and rapid quantification of mono-, di- and tri-epoxides, thus providing an indirect indication on the fatty acid composition of the vegetable oils, even in the presence of very low quantities of linolenic acid.
Funding Information
  • ESF (2014-2020, FAR2019/2020 Pisano Azzena Carraro)
  • European Union (Cometa project)

This publication has 48 references indexed in Scilit: