Catalytic transesterification of Pistacia chinensis seed oil using HPW immobilized on magnetic composite graphene oxide/cellulose microspheres

Abstract In the present study, magnetic composite graphene oxide/cellulose (GO/CM@Fe3O4) microspheres were prepared as support material, which are cost-efficient, non-toxic and environmental friendly. The microspheres with higher adsorption capacity were further modified using triethylene tetramine (TETA), and H3PW12O40 (HPW) was immobilized to form GO/CM-NH2@Fe3O4-HPW microspheres as heterogeneous catalyst for biodiesel production. The novel heterogeneous catalyst was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) and X-ray diffractometry (XRD). For the first time, GO/CM-NH2@Fe3O4--HPW was applied in the tr…