Alkylation of phenol/ tert ‑butyl alcohol on ionic liquid-immobilized SBA-15 with different pore sizes

B-SBA-16 encaged functional tungstosilicic acid type ionic liquids to catalyze the ketal reaction

There is special significance to composite catalysts using SBA-16 nano-cages as carriers in the acid catalysis field. A method for embedding boron atoms onto SBA-16 to increase acidic sites and enhance the acidity of the nano-cages was described. The tungstosilicic acid type ionic liquid (SWIL) was encaged into B-SBA-16 acidic nano-cages to obtain various composite catalysts. The acidic nano-cages and composite catalysts were characterized by FT-IR, TG/DSC, SAXD, BET, SEM, TEM, XPS and 1H NMR analyses. Research confirmed that boron was embedded onto the SBA-16 nano-cages in varying proportions and the obtained B-SBA-16 acidic nano-cages still maintained a high degree of pore ordering. The SWIL was successfully encapsulated into the acidic nano-cages via the immersion method. The cage-encapsulated tungstosilicic acid type ionic liquid catalysts SWIL/B(n)-SBA-16 were applied to catalyze the ketal reaction of cyclohexanone (CYC) with ethylene glycol (EG). The results showed that the conversion of CYC could reach 92.01% along with the yield of cyclohexanone ethylene glycol ketal (CGK) of 83.87% under ideal conditions. The CYC conversion was still nearly 86.86% and the CGK yield was 69.50% even after 8 times of continuous reuse.

Solubility and Antioxidant Potential of a Pyrogallol Derivative for Biodiesel Additive

Biodiesel is a renewable plant-based fuel as an alternative for fossil diesel fuel which has many advantages. However, its high content of unsaturated fatty acid causes an oxidation instability during storage. Numerous additives have been used and developed to overcome this problem such as the application of phenolic compound-based antioxidants. Pyrogallol is reported to be one of the best phenolic antioxidants for biodiesel. Unfortunately, pyrogallol has a low solubility in oil solution. In this research, pyrogallol solubility is increased by preparing a pyrogallol derivative through a reaction between pyrogallol and methyl linoleate in the presence of radical 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH). The spectrophotometric method was used for solubility test. Antioxidant potential was examined using acid value determination during a four-week storage period as well as the Rancimat test to see its performance under accelerated oxidation conditions. The reaction produced a molecule which has a molecular weight of 418 g/mol, representing pyrogallol derivative which has a new C–O covalent bond with methyl linoleate. The result was confirmed by using nuclear magnetic resonance (¹H-NMR, ¹³C-NMR, and 2D-HMQC) resulting in a molecular structure of methyl (10E,12E)-9-(2,6-dihydroxyphenoxy)octadeca-10,12-dienoate and its isomer methyl (9E,11E)-13-(2,6-dihydroxyphenoxy)octadeca-9,11-dienoate with a yield of 12.86% and selectivity of 21.05% on the basis of pyrogallol. Compared to pyrogallol, tert-butylhydroquinone (TBHQ), and gallic acid, the pyrogallol derivative has the highest solubility and acid value stability in palm oil biodiesel. The Rancimat induction time (IP) result of the pyrogallol derivative is higher than the biodiesel and is above the accelerated oxidation test American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) D 6751 standard.