Mohamed Mokhtar M. Mostafa

For the creation of adaptable carbonyl compounds in organic synthesis, the oxidation of alcohols is a crucial step. As a sustainable alternative to the harmful traditional oxidation processes, transition-metal catalysts have recently attracted a lot of interest in acceptorless dehydrogenation reactions of alcohols. Here, using well-defined, air-stable palladium(II)–NHC catalysts (A–F), we demonstrate an effective method for the catalytic acceptorless dehydrogenation (CAD) reaction of secondary benzylic alcohols to produce the corresponding ketones and molecular hydrogen (H2). Catalytic acceptorless dehydrogenation (CAD) has been successfully used to convert a variety of alcohols, including electron-rich/electron-poor aromatic secondary alcohols, heteroaromatic secondary alcohols, and aliphatic cyclic alcohols, into their corresponding value-added ketones while only releasing molecular hydrogen as a byproduct.

Biodiesel has been recognized as an environmentally friendly, renewable alternative to fossil fuels. In this work, CaO/ZnCo2O4 nanocomposites were successfully synthesized via simple mechanochemical reaction between ZnCo2O4 and CaO powders by varying the CaO loading from 5 to 20 wt.%. The synthesized materials were found to be highly efficient heterogeneous catalysts for transesterification of tributyrin with methanol to produce biodiesel. The nanocomposite, which contained 20 wt.% CaO and 80 wt.% ZnCo2O4 (CaO/ZnCo2O4-20), exhibited superior and stable transesterification activity (98% conversion) under optimized reaction conditions (1:12 TBT to methanol molar ratio, 5 wt.% catalyst and 180 min. reaction time). The experimental results revealed that the reaction mechanism on the CaO/ZnCo2O4 composite followed pseudo first-order kinetics. The physicochemical characteristics of the synthesized nanocomposites were measured using X-ray diffraction (XRD), high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), Fourier-transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray photoelectron spectrometer (XPS), N2-physisorption, and CO2- temperature-programmed desorption (CO2-TPD) techniques. The results indicated the existence of coalescence between the CaO and ZnCo2O4 particles, Additionally, the CaO/ZnCo2O4-20 catalyst was found to possess the greater number of highly basic sites and high porosity, which are the key factors affecting catalytic performance in transesterification reactions.