Aplicación de Nanomateriales para la Valorización de Recursos Biomásicos

Abstract

This work deals with the liquid phase catalytic oxidation of 4-hydroxy-3-methoxycinnamic acid, one of the main phenolic monomers found in plant cell- walls. H2O2 was used as green oxidant, and a nano-structured material of the family MCM-41 modified with a copper content of 3.46% w/w (Cu-MCM-41) was employed as solid catalyst. The catalyst was synthesized by the template-ion exchange (TIE) method and then characterized by N2 adsorption, XRD, UV-Vis-RD, ICP-OES y SEM. The major product of the oxidation reaction was 4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzaldehyde, which is industrially relevant as the main component of the vanilla scent. To increase the yield of this product, two different solvents were evaluated, one of them aprotic and the other protic: acetonitrile and ethanol. Using ethanol and Cu-MCM-41 silicate, the conversion reached values close to 12% at 7 hours of reaction with 54% selectivity to product.