Graphene oxide and a GO/ZnO nanocomposite as catalysts for epoxy ring-opening of epoxidized soybean fatty acids methyl esters

• Autor(a) principal: Wanderley, Kaline A.
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Outros Autores: Leite, Amanda Moreira, Cardoso, Gabriel, Medeiros, Anderson Mateus Mendonça e Silva, Matos, Caroline L., Dutra, Romulo Coriolano, Suarez, Paulo Anselmo Ziani
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UnB
• Texto Completo: https://repositorio.unb.br/handle/10482/36407; https://doi.org/10.1590/0104-6632.20190363s20180540; http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3223-4501; http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1195-3128
• topic: Óxido de grafeno; Óxido de zinco; Nanocompósitos; Éteres; Acetilação

In this work, the grapheme oxide (GO) and GO/ZnO nanocomposite were successfully obtained from the oxidation of graphite and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). In the GO/ZnO nanocomposite, the GO sheets were coated with aggregated ZnO nanoneedles with ca. 20 nm of diameter. The obtained materials were used as heterogeneous catalysts for acetylation of Soybean Fatty Acids Methyl Esters (FAME), promoting the epoxy ring-opening using acetic anhydride. The epoxy ring was almost completely opened in the presence of GO or GO/ZnO nanocomposites, with conversion rates up to 99% and selectivity of ca. 90%, and partially opened using only ZnO. The GO/Zn and GO catalysts were reused three times with conversion rates of ca. 85 and 74%, respectively.