Catalytic Epoxidation of Soybean Oil Methyl Esters

Abstract

The plant oil-based epoxy materials are considered as environment-friendly, biodegradable, renewable raw materials, potentially replacing petrochemical-based epoxy materials in many fields. Soybean oil methyl esters (SOME) were epoxidized with Prileshajev and Chemo-enzymatic reactions. The highest epoxy oxirane achieved by Prileshajev epoxidation was only 4.42%, however, it could reach 5.63% by chemo-enzymatic epoxidation. The stability of oxirane by chemo-enzymatic epoxidation was better than that by Prileshajev epoxidation. The results showed that the chemo-enzymatic method was extremely efficient in the synthesis of epoxides from unsaturated methyl esters.