immobilized different amines on modified magnetic nanoparticles as catalyst for biodiesel production from soybean oil

Fe3o4 nanoparticles were modified with tetraethylorthosilicate (teos) and (3-chloropropyl)trimethoxysilane (cptms) followed by immobilization with different amines such as guanine, piperazine, methylamine, morpholine, aniline, ethylenediamine, 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane, and melamine, designated as fe3o4@sio2@cptms@amine (nanocatalyst). the prepared nanocatalysts were characterized by means of ftir, xrd, vsm, sem, and tem. trans-esterification reactions of soybean oil with methanol were then carried out in the presence of the fe3o4@sio2@cptms@amine as a nanocatalyst. optimization of the reaction parameters revealed that the fatty acid methyl esters (fames or biodiesel) is obtained in 6–96% yields by using methanol to oil molar ratio of 36 in the presence of 6% of nanocatalysts containing melamine and guanine, respectively, at 160 °c within 3 h. the stability and reusability of the catalyst as well as the effect of reaction parameters on the fame yield are described in this paper.