Carbocatalysis: N-doped reduced graphene oxide catalyzed esterification of fatty acids with long chain alcohols

Abstract

Nitrogen doped reduced graphene oxide (N-rGO), 5.8% N readily synthesized from the thermal annealing of graphene oxide (GO) in ammonium hydroxide at 453 K, was demonstrated to be a superior metal-free non-acidic carbo-catalyst for the esterification of fatty acids with different alcohols. The effect of various reaction parameters such as reaction temperature, reaction time, catalyst amount etc. has been studied. The developed catalyst was found to be highly stable and exhibited consistent reusability for seven cycles without any significant decrease in the product yields.