Catalisadores heterogêneos a base de NI1-XZNXFE2O4 na reação de esterificação para produção de biodiesel.

Abstract

The search for clean fuels has resulted in the development of research for the processing of fats and oils mainly consisting of fatty acids, high-energy power which can be converted to esters (biodiesel) by trans-esterification reactions and esterification with homogeneous catalysis, heterogeneous and enzyme. The problems identified with the use of esterification with homogeneous catalysis can be minimized by esterification with heterogeneous catalysis that seeks to improve the effectiveness of the production of biodiesel. In this study the heterogeneous catalyst developed it is itself known as ferrites which are ferromagnetic materials that have been the subject of numerous scientific studies due to their magnetic properties, chemical and thermal stability. Therefore, an application that has shown promise for these materials is the catalysis for biodiesel. Based on this background the present study concerns itself to synthesize nanoferrites Ni1-xZnxFe2O4 (x = 0.0; 0.3; 0.5; 0.7 and 1.0 mol of Zn2+) by combustion reaction to evaluate the influence of replacement of the Ni2+ions by Zn2+ions in the structure, morphology, and catalytic activity in soybean oil esterification reactions in the presence of methanol. In order to find out what was really happening, during the research the time measurement and flame temperature and the resulting product was characterized by X-ray diffraction, X-ray fluorescence energy dispersive, textural analysis by N2 adsorption spectroscopy in the infrared Fourier transform, particle size distribution, density, scanning electron microscopy, thermal analysis and magnetic measurements. The biodiesel obtained was analysed by a gas chromatograph. It was noticed that, an investigation of the dependence of morphology, magnetism, acidity and catalytic activity of the nanocatalyst were evaluated according to the Zn2+content. The findings reflected that, the increase of the Zn2+content caused changes in the structure, morphology, magnetism, acidity and zeta potential of the samples, which contributed significantly to the increase in the catalytic conversion, which ranged from 49.08% to 99.06%. It was found out that Ni1-xZnxFe2O4 nanocatalysts are promising materials for use in the esterification reaction for biodiesel production.