Mesoporous and amorphous Ti-silicas on the epoxidation of vegetable oils

For the epoxidation oleic acid methyl ester, different kinds of Ti-MCM-41 materials and Ti-amorphous silicas were compared. Catalytic activity was explained in terms of chemical and textural features of the denoted materials. Further examinations were made of the behavior of reaction temperature and different solvents, Ti-loading of the catalysts, and their re-usability and stability. Mesoporous materials like MCM-41 used as a Ti-support have the advantage of its higher surface area toward amorphous TiSiO2. The structure of Ti-MCM-41 was not observed to play any important role in the activity. TiSiO2 proved to be a truly heterogeneous catalyst and could be reused at least four times. The epoxidation system TBHP/TiSiO2 has not been reported so far in the literature for the epoxidation of vegetable oils and their transesterification products. Based on the results presented here, this system could have a great potential for industrial use.