Interesterification of triglycerides with methyl acetate for biodiesel production using a cyclodextrin-derived SnO@γ-Al2O3 composite as heterogeneous catalyst

Particle morphology and surface properties of metal oxides are topics great importance in the field heterogeneous catalysis. Herein, we have developed a molecular-colloidal coassembly approach combined with an ultrasonic-assisted precipitation method to fabricate [email protected]γ-Al2O3 composites tuneable pore size well-defined octahedral-shape crystal structure. The supramolecular assemblies formed between randomly methylated β-cyclodextrin (RaMeβCD) Pluronic F127 were employed as template tailor shape γ-Al2O3 nanoparticles direct their assembly almost exclusively on micrometer-sized SnO single crystals. Results revealed that cooperative action may critical effect growth orientation microcrystals ultimately determine catalytic performance interesterification rapeseed oil methyl acetate. compartmentalized structures could achieve fatty acid esters (FAME) triacetin (TA) yields 33.5% 1.5% respectively after 30 min at 210 °C, exceeding by 38% FAME yield commercial catalyst.