Fatty acid methyl esters (FAME), commonly known as biodiesel, represent an alternative to diesel fuel.  However, the high free fatty acid (FFA) content of waste oils requires additional steps to create biodiesel.  Sulfuric acid is an effective catalyst, but adds dangerous sulfur to the environment and is highly corrosive.   Our original studies focused on using tetrachloro[ethylenebis(diphenylphosphine)] tungsten(IV) as a replacement for sulfuric acid.  However, recently, we have shifted our focus to adding different ligands to the ortho position of tetrachlorobis(triphenylphosphine) tungsten(IV)  to explore the change in electron density at the metal center, in order to see the change in Lewis acidity.  We have used fluorine, chlorine, and methoxy triphenolphosphine species.   The percent FAME was determined by 1H NMR.  Preliminary results suggest that the unsubsituted compound showed the best catalytic ability while the methoxy compound has the worst Lewis acid catalytic ability.

Investigation of Lewis acid catalytic abilities of tungsten (IV) compounds on the esterification of oleic acid as a model for biodiesel

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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