Synthesis of CaOZnO nanoparticles catalyst and its application in transesterification of refined palm oil

Abstract

The CaOZnO nanoparticle catalysts with Ca to Zn atomic ratios of 0.08 and 0.25 have been success-fully synthesized by co-precipitation method. The catalyst was characterized by X-ray Diffraction (XRD) analysis provided with Rietica and Maud software, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and its properties was compared with bare CaO and ZnO catalysts. The phase composition estimated by Rietica software revealed that the CaO catalyst consists of CaO and CaCO3 phases. The estimation of the particle size by Maud software, showed that the particle size of all catalysts increased by the following order: ZnO<CaOZnO 0.08<CaOZnO0.25<CaO. The SEM images showed that all catalysts have different morphology and size. The catalytic activity of CaO, ZnO, CaOZnO0.08 and CaOZnO0.25 has been studied on transesterification of Refined Palm Oil (RPO) with methanol at 65 °C for 3 hours. It was found that the conversion of triglyceride, yield of methyl ester, turnover number (TON) and turnover frequency (TOF) of CaOZnO0.08 are higher than CaOZnO0.25. This result confirmed that the particle size of the catalysts play an important role in this study.