Graphene oxide as a facile solid acid catalyst for the production of bioadditives from glycerol esterification

•GO is a highly active, selective and reusable catalyst for glycerol esterification.•A 90.2% combined selectivity of glyceryl diacetate and triacetate was achieved.•GO can reuse four consecutive runs without obvious deactivation.•SO3H groups of GO were identified as the active species for glycerol esterification.

Graphene oxide (GO) has proved to be a highly active and reusable solid acid catalyst for glycerol esterification with acetic acid in the synthesis of bioadditives diacylglycerol (DAG) and triacylglycerol (TAG). The effects of reaction temperature, molar ratio of acetic acid to glycerol, catalyst amount and reaction time were investigated. A 90.2% combined selectivity of DAG and TAG with complete glycerol conversion was achieved at 120 °C for 6 h over GO. Final characterization shows that the active site of GO is the remaining SO3H group.

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