Recently, the production and application of biodiesel has led to surplus glycerol urgently needed to be transformed into high value-added chemicals. Among glycerol derivatives, glycerol carbonate is very promising for its numerous applications in organic synthesis and industry field. Synthesis of glycerol carbonate from glycerol and CO2 is a great routs as it accords with green chemistry for the utilization of green house gas and its only side product is H2O. However, no satisfactory results have been reported since this reaction is severely limited by thermodynamics. In the present work, we employed WO3/ZnO as catalyst for the direct synthesis of glycerol carbonate from glycerol and CO2 without using dehydrant. The surface properties and catalytic performance of WO3/ZnO heterogenous catalysts were investigated. xWO3/ZnO-400C catalysts were prepared by impregnation methods, where x (0, 1, 2, 5, 10, 15, 20, 50) meant the mass loading amount of WO3 and 400C is the calcinations temperature of the catalysts. The physico-chemical properties of WO3/ZnO samples were characterized by XRD, TEM, BET, H2-TPD, CO2-TPD, Raman, and XPS. The catalytic reactions were carried out in a high-pressure agitated autoclave. Results showed that a new crystallite phase of ZnWO4 was formed, and with comparison to pure ZnO, WO3, and ZnWO4, as prepared WO3/ZnO catalysts showed better catalytic activity, meaning that the interfacial property of WO3/ZnO catalysts might take great responsibility for the higher yield of glycerol carbonate. Besides, the improved catalytic performance of WO3/ZnO could be related to the oxygen capacity and acid-base properties of the catalysts. The reaction condition study showed that an appropriate reaction temperature (150°C), pressure (5.0MPa) and time (5h) were needed for the higher selectivity of glycerol carbonate.

Surface properties of WO3/ZnO catalysts and their catalytic performance in the direct carbonylation of glycerol with CO2 to glycerol carbonate

255th National Meeting (2018)

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