Fabrication of magnetic nanoparticles supported ionic liquid catalyst for transesterification of vegetable oil to produce biodiesel

In the present study, we have fabricated novel magnetic ionic liquid based nanocomposites using 1-butylimidazole, (3-bromopropyl)-trimethoxysilane and NiFe2O4 nanoparticles. [NiFe2O4@-BMSI]HSO4 was synthesized from [NiFe2O4@-BMSI]Br via ion-exchange process. The fabricated nanocomposites were characterized by various analytical techniques. The surface area was determined using N-2 adsorption-desorption analysis and the BET surface area of [NiFe2O4@BMSI]Br and [NiFe2O4@BMSI]HSO4 was noted to be 89.21 and 87.21 m(2)/g, respectively. The fabricated nanocomposites were used as catalyst for the transesterification of palm oil (VO) for the production of biodiesel. The results revealed that [NiFe2O4@BMSI]HSO4 exhibited better performance in terms of biodiesel yield; a maximum i.e. 86.4% yield was obtained using [NiFe2O4@BMSI]HSO4 while in the case of NiFe2O4@BMSI]Br, about similar to 74.6% yield was found with 5% (w/w) catalyst loading, 353 K and to CH3OH ratio of 1:12 in 8 h. The reusability of the catalyst results revealed that the catalytic activity of the catalysts still remained about 92.7% and 88.1% with NiFe2O4@BMSI]HSO4 and NiFe2O4@BMSI]Br, respectively after six cycles which may be accredited to the handling loss during the manipulation process. (C) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

In this study, novel magnetic ionic liquid based nanocomposites were fabricated for the efficient production of biodiesel from palm oil. The results showed that [NiFe2O4@BMSI]HSO4 exhibited higher catalytic performance and reusability compared to NiFe2O4@BMSI]Br, making it a promising catalyst for transesterification reactions.