Synthesis of hydroxyfatty esters by sequential epoxidation-hydrogenolysis: Solvent effects

The tandem/sequential combination of epoxidation and hydrogenolysis for unsaturated fatty esters is not straightforward, due to incompatibility problems with the impurities present or generated in the used solvents. The chlorinated impurities in α,α,α-trifluorotoluene leads to the formation of impor...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Authors: Dorado, Vicente, Herrerías, Clara I., Fraile, José M.
Format: article
Status:Published version
Publication Date:2021
Country:España
Institution:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repository:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/267028
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/267028
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Tandem processes
Hydrogenolysis
Hydroxyfatty esters
Fatty epoxides
Description
Summary:The tandem/sequential combination of epoxidation and hydrogenolysis for unsaturated fatty esters is not straightforward, due to incompatibility problems with the impurities present or generated in the used solvents. The chlorinated impurities in α,α,α-trifluorotoluene leads to the formation of important amounts of chlorohydrins by HCl formation in the hydrogenolysis step. The use of trifluoroethanol (TFE) in the epoxidation step produces trifluoroacetic acid traces by oxidation, responsible for the opening of the epoxide with water and TFE. The solvent of choice was finally isobutyl acetate, which gathers the required physicochemical properties, with 85 % yield of hydroxystearates from methyl oleate in a sequential process.