One-pot solvent-free synthesis of fatty acid alkanoamides from natural oil triglycerides using alkali metal doped CaO nanoparticles as heterogeneous catalyst

One-pot solvent-free amidation of natural triglycerides (pongamia and jatropha oil) was investigated using Li or Na or K doped CaO nanoparticles as heterogeneous catalyst. Complete conversion (98 ± 2%) of pongamia oil and jatropha oil to fatty diethanolamides has been obtained in 0.75 h and 1 h, respectively, using 5 wt% of Li doped CaO (2-LiH/CaO-400) and 6:1 molar ratio of diethanolamine/oil at 90 °C. The same catalyst was active up to six catalytic recycles for amidation of both feedstocks. The rate of reaction and activation energy for the same reaction process was calculated as 0.101 min−1 and 48.3 kJ mol−1, respectively.

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