Green and efficient epoxidation of methyl oleate over hierarchical TS-1

Abstract The epoxidation of methyl oleate (MO) was conducted in the presence of aqueous H 2 O 2 as the oxidant and hierarchical TS-1 (HTS-1) as the catalyst; the catalyst was synthesized using polyquaternium-6 as the mesopore template. The effects of various parameters, i.e., H 2 O 2 /C=C molar ratio, oxidant concentration, amount of the catalyst, reaction temperature, and time, were systematically studied. Furthermore, response surface methodology (RSM) was used to optimize the conditions to maximize the yield of epoxy MO and to evaluate the significance and interplay of the factors affecting the epoxy MO production. The H 2 O 2 /C=C molar ratio and catalyst amount were the determining factors for MO epoxidation, wherein the maximum yield of epoxy MO reached 94.9% over HTS-1 under the optimal conditions.