CLAY AS CATALYST: TERPENE CONVERSION

CRISTINA VOLZONE1, OMAR MASINI2, NORA A. COMELLI2, LILIANA M. GRZONA2, ESTER N. PONZI3 AND MARTA I. PONZI2

Santa Fé Arg.

Congreso; III Congreso de Ingeniería de Procesos del Mercosur ENPROMER 2001; 2001

Abstract. The isomerization of terpene using one natural clay and after different treatments was studied in this work. The natural clay came from Chubut province, Argentina. The mineralogical composition obtained by X-ray diffraction showed the presence of kaolinite and illite clays, and quartz as impurity. The kaolinite clay is a phyllosilicate 1:1 layer (one sheet of tetrahedral silicon and one sheet of octahedral alumina). The arrangements in illite clay form type 2:1 layer (one octahedral alumina between two tetrahedral silicon). The clay was treated at different times using 6N solution of sulfuric acid. The materials were characterized by X-ray diffraction and by chemical analyses. The catalytic reactions were carried out at 373K in a reactor batch with condenser and stirrer. Samples were taken at regular intervals and reactants and products were quantitatively analyzed with a gas chromatograph after separation of the individual compounds. Conversions of alpha pinene between 67 and 94%; selectivities in camphene and in limonene of 65% and 23%, respectively, were obtained with the clay treated at different conditions.  The structural modifications of the clay by acid treatment originated different degree of the terpene conversion.