Synthesis of materials as catalysts in the epoxidation of FAME’s obtained from castor oil

Abstract

In the present study it is expected to disseminate to the scientific community the current state of the research based on the thesis plan called "Synthesis of materials as catalysts for the epoxidation of fatty acid methyl esters (FAME’s) derived from inedible vegetable oils". Due to the short time that this investigation takes, only some results of the synthesis of the heterogeneous catalyst (pillared clay or PILC) will be exposed, as well as the transesterification of castor oil to obtain the mixture of FAME's, raw material necessary for the proposed
epoxidation in the original thesis topic. FAME’s obtained from castor oil are characterized by Fourier Transformed Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR).
As the next objective, the catalytic material obtained will be characterized, in order to study its structural stability, its surface properties, coordination, location and nature of the incorporated metallic speci es and thus evaluate it in epoxidation reactions. In addition, the reaction products will be identified by different analytical techniques, such as:  Gas chromatography (GC), Mass spectrometry coupled to gas chromatography (MS-GC), FTIR and Proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1HRMN). Finally, we will seek to correlate the physicochemical properties of the materials with their catalytic activity, in order to redesign, if it is necessary, the catalysts that make it possible to optimize obtaining of products sought (epoxides).