A series
of tungsten oxide nanoparticles (NPs) has been synthesized via a green
and straightforward approach exploiting bare tungsten powder as a
precursor. The synthesized NPs were further organo-functionalized
by cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) in order to adjust their
surface state and enhance their compatibility with biphasic oxidation
of vegetable oils with H2O2. Simply, different
structures of tungsten oxide were observed, which were characterized
by XRD, FTIR, TGA, TEM, N2 adsorption/desorption isotherms,
and zeta potential analysis. All the synthesized nanocatalysts could
fully convert oleic acid, and the highest yield of production of the
desired diacid (azelaic acid), ∼80%, was achieved by optimization
of the CTA+ amount on the nanocatalyst’s surface,
which show excellent activity compared to the reported heterogeneous
works. Thanks to the organo-functionalization, this water-tolerant
catalyst exhibited no significant leaching, as well as convenient
recovery and steady reuse without a noticeble decrease in activity,
at least up to four cycles.