Surface chemical promotion of Ca oxide catalysts in biodiesel production reaction by the addition of monoglycerides, diglycerides and glycerol

Understanding the unique S-scheme charge migration in triazine/heptazine crystalline carbon nitride homojunction

Understanding charge transfer dynamics and carrier separation pathway is challenging due to the lack of appropriate characterization strategies. In this work, a crystalline triazine/heptazine carbon nitride homojunction is selected as a model system to demonstrate the interfacial electron-transfer mechanism. Surface bimetallic cocatalysts are used as sensitive probes during in situ photoemission for tracing the S-scheme transfer of interfacial photogenerated electrons from triazine phase to the heptazine phase. Variation of the sample surface potential under light on/off confirms dynamic S-scheme charge transfer. Further theoretical calculations demonstrate an interesting reversal of interfacial electron-transfer path under light/dark conditions, which also supports the experimental evidence of S-scheme transport. Benefiting from the unique merit of S-scheme electron transfer, homojunction shows significantly enhanced activity for CO₂ photoreduction. Our work thus provides a strategy to probe dynamic electron transfer mechanisms and to design delicate material structures towards efficient CO₂ photoreduction.

TiO2/g-C3N4 Binary Composite as an Efficient Photocatalyst for Biodiesel Production from Jatropha Oil and Dye Degradation

In the present work, TiO₂/g-C₃N₄ nanocomposites were synthesized by using highly crystalline TiO₂ nanorods/rice (NRs) and various percentages of g-C₃N₄ via a facile, scalable, and inexpensive pyrolysis method. The synthesized nanocomposites were characterized by various techniques, e.g., X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), N₂ adsorption and desorption analysis (BET), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and chronoamperometry (CA). It was found that biodiesel production by the esterification reaction can be remarkably enhanced by coupling TiO₂ with g-C₃N₄; hereby, it was observed that with increasing percentage of g-C₃N₄ from 5 to 10 and 15% with respect to TiO₂ NRs, the photocatalytic activity rose and the maximum photocatalytic activity with 97% conversion was observed for NC-3, i.e., 15% g-C₃N₄/TiO₂. Moreover, the photoactivity of pristine TiO₂ NR aggregates was contrasted with their nanoparticle morphology and was estimated to be slightly better. When applied for photocatalytic Congo red dye degradation, this sample showed a 91% degradation efficiency using only a very small amount of the catalyst. The high catalytic efficiency is attributed to the narrow band gap, exceptionally high surface area, and efficient charge separation properties of the prepared catalysts.

Towards Efficient Acidic Catalysts via Optimization of SO3H-Organosilane Immobilization on SBA-15 under Increased Pressure: Potential Applications in Gas and Liquid Phase Reactions

In this paper, the optimization of the synthesis of catalysts based on acidic mesoporous silica of the SBA-15 type by post-synthesis immobilization of 3-(trihydroxysilyl)-1-propanesulfonic acid (TPS) under increased pressure up to 20 bar is reported. Sample structures and composition were examined by XRD measurement, low-temperature N₂ adsorption/desorption and elemental analysis. The catalytic activities of the materials obtained were determined in both gas and liquid phase processes, i.e., by esterification of acetic acid and glycerol dehydration, respectively. The optimum pressure for modification leading to the highest number of acidic sites was found to be 10 bar. The final material was very active and stable in liquid phase processes; however, the stability in the gas-phase process was unsatisfactory due to the loss of sulphonic species from the catalyst surface.

Effect of the Formation of Diglycerides/Monoglycerides on the Kinetic Curve in Oil Transesterification with Methanol Catalyzed by Calcium Oxide

Many researchers reported that a sigmoid kinetic curve was obtained in oil transesterification with methanol catalyzed by CaO and gave different explanations for this formation. In this paper, heterogeneously catalyzed transesterification of soybean oil with methanol using CaO has been investigated. The solid catalyst and the liquid reaction mixture under different reaction time periods were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) to reveal the formation of an S-shape kinetic curve. The appearance of calcium hydroxide, calcium methoxide, calcium glyceroxide, fatty acid calcium, diglycerides, and monoglycerides and their contributions to the kinetic curve have been discussed. The low reaction rate in the induction period can be attributed to mass transfer in this three-phase system. However, the formation of surfactants, diglycerides and monoglycerides, promotes the emulsification of the reaction mixture and numerous emulsion reactors are generated. These emulsion reactors can improve the contact of the solid catalyst with the reactants and thus accelerate the reaction.

Waste cooking oil and waste chicken eggshells derived solid base catalyst for the biodiesel production: Optimization and kinetics

Waste chicken eggshells were used to derive two catalysts labeled in this study as Eggshell-CaO_C-H-D and Eggshell-CaDG. Both these catalysts were characterized by FTIR, XRD, BET, SEM, and basic strength was determined by the Hammett indicator method. The transesterification of waste cooking oil was carried out to compare the catalytic activity of Eggshell-CaDG and Eggshell-CaO_C-H-D. The effect of various reaction parameters-methanol molar ratio, temperature, speed of agitation, and catalyst loading on the progress of the reaction was also tested to produce higher biodiesel yield. Eggshell-CaDG catalyzed reaction produced 96.07% biodiesel under the optimized reaction conditions of methanol molar ratio 10:1, catalyst loading 1.50 wt%, temperature 60 °C and speed of agitation 300 rpm with a reaction time of 50 min. Whereas, Eggshell-CaO_C-H-D was yielded 93.10% biodiesel for the optimized operating parameters-methanol molar ratio 12:1, 400 rpm, 65 °C, catalyst loading of 3 wt% in the reaction time of 90 min. The reusability for both the catalysts was tested up to five cycles and found that biodiesel yield was decreased with successive cycles. The activation energies of the Eggshell-CaDG and Eggshell-CaO_C-H-D were found to be 31.39 and 54.05 kJ mol^-1, respectively. The physicochemical properties of the biodiesel were also found as per the ASTM standard range.

KF-loaded mesoporous Mg-Fe bi-metal oxides: high performance transesterification catalysts for biodiesel production

Using newly developed mesoporous Mg-Fe bi-metal oxides as supports, a novel kind of high performance transesterification catalysts for biodiesel production has been synthesized. More importantly, the impregnation solvent was for the first time found to substantially affect the structures and catalytic performances of the resultant transesterification catalysts.