Epoxidation of castor oil and its derivatives using vo(acac)2/tbhp as the catalytic system

The alternative system VO(acac)2/TBHP was investigated for the epoxidation reaction of castor oil and its derivatives. Results of 88% of conversion, 73% of epoxidation and 82% of selectivity were obtained for the system containing 20% excess of TBHP and 1% of VO(acac)2 catalyst, during 3 h under toluene reflux. The product was characterized by GC/MS as methyl-cis-9, 10-epoxi, 12-hydroxystearate and quantitative 1H NMR was used to calculate the data above. Preliminary results indicate that the heterogeneous system VO(acac)2 grafted on K10 clay can also promote epoxidation of castor oil