Tin oxide preparation and characterization and use as a catalyst in the reaction of unsaturated fatty esters epoxidation

Abstract

Tin oxide synthesis and characterization were studied in the present work in order to evaluate its catalytic activity in the reaction of methyl ricinoleate from castor oil. Oxide is obtained through the controlled precipitation method, and significant advantages are obtained when using water solutions of SnCl2.2H2O as precursor. Its characterization was done using the techniques DTA, TGA, XRD, finding that in order to have  high performance for the cassiterite system the optimum pH value was 6,25 whereas a pH of 8.0 was leading to the romarchite system.   When using SEM techniques and a surface area, the size of the particle found was below 50 nm with a surface area of 19 m2/g.  The ricinoleate ester was obtained from the oil using sodium methylate as catalyst and then making it react with hydrogen peroxide as oxidant agent and tin oxide to produce an epoxide. Finally, reaction products are identified through gas chromatography finding that tin oxides are active for obtaining epoxides with better performance of the romarchite crystal system (SnO) especially towards the methyl-12-hydroxi-9, 10-epoxioctadecanote (MHEOD).