Lanthanum Oxide-catalyzed Transesterification of Dimethyl Carbonate with Glycerol: Effect of Surfactant

Abstract

Three kinds of lanthanum oxides (La 2 O 3 ) were synthesized from different methods and used as a catalyst in the transesterification of dimethyl carbonate (DMC) with glycerol for the synthesis of glycerol carbonate (GLC). Lanthanum oxide synthesized using a surfactant (S-La) showed a much higher GLC yield of 89.9% compared to other lanthanum oxides synthesized by calcination (C-La) and precipitation (P-La) at the reaction conditions of 90°C, DMC/glycerol = 2, and catalyst/glycerol = 5 wt %. The best catalyst was obtained when the surfactant/La weight ratio was 12. XRD study revealed that S-La has large amount of monoclinic and hexagonal La 2 O 2 CO 3 phases, which are assumed as active sites of the catalyst for the reaction.

Recent Development of Heterogeneous Catalysis in the Transesterification of Glycerol to Glycerol Carbonate

“…Although Lanthanide metal oxides possess strong basic sites, the catalytic performance for transesterification of glycerol was relative lower due to the low surface area (Table 3, entries 17-23) [91]. Lanthanide metal oxides are usually supported with various metal oxides to increase the surface area and the catalytic activity.…”

Synthesis and Certification of Lanthanum Oxide Extracted from Monazite Sand

“…Lanthanum oxide (La2O3) is a potentially useful material for various optical and electronic applications, such as high gate dielectric material, capacitors, non-volatile memories, optical filters, and waveguides [5]. Lanthanum oxide has a bandgap of 4.3 eV and the lowest lattice energy with a high dielectric constant [6]. Lanthanum oxide is a solid, odorless, white, and insoluble in water, but it is soluble in the dilute acids [7].…”

Process intensification for tertiary amine catalyzed glycerol carbonate production: translating microwave irradiation to a continuous-flow process

“…6 Different groups have attempted to use ionic liquids [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] and lipases [15][16][17][18][19][20] as catalysts to produce glycerol carbonate with high yield and selectivity but this strategies are inadequate in terms of high reaction times and prices of the catalysts used, sometimes not commercially available. Other catalysts such as gold, 21 palladium, 22,23 copper, [24][25][26] rhodium, 27 tungsten, 28,29 zinc, 10,30 lanthanum, [31][32][33] calcium, 34,35 magnesium, [36][37][38][39][40][41] zeolites, 42,43 Naon, 44 alumina, [45][46][47] have been used to produce glycerol carbonate by carbonylation of glycerol with alkyl carbonates, 19,48,49 CO 2 (ref. 30) or urea, [50][51][52][53][54][55] arriving on the desired product with poor (when CO 2 is used) to good yields and selectivity (when alkyl carbonates are used).…”