Phosphotungstic acid supported on SiO2 catalysts, a-pinene dimerization

COMELLI NORA; AVILA MARIA CECILIA; GRZONA LILIANA,; ENRIQUE RODRÍGUEZ CASTELLÓN; A. JIMÉNEZ LOPEZ,; PONZI MARTA

Malaga

Congreso; First International Congress on Catalysis for biorefineries (CatBior), Torremolinos-Malaga, Spain; 2011

Universidad de Malaga

The alpha-pinene dimerization in liquid phase was studied by using phosphotungstic acid catalysts H3PW12O40, ( PWH) supported on commercial silica. These catalysts were characterized by XRD, FT-IR and FT-IR of pyridine adsorbed. Catalyst characterization by XRD showed the presence of PWH crystals on PWHSi catalyst. FT-IR spectra showed only bands assigned to the pyridine adsorption on Brönsted acid sites. The catalytic activity was found to depend on the reaction temperature and the amount of catalyst loaded in the reactor, and the highest selectivity in dimers corresponded to the PWH supported. Under reaction conditions 130ºC and 4% catalyst, the most active catalyst showed 100% alpha-pinene conversion and 55% selectivity to dimers. The selectivity to dimers increases with the increase of the reaction temperature and of the amount of catalyst loaded in the reactor