Epoxidation of neem oil via in situ peracids mechanism with applied ion exchange resin catalyst

Epoxidized vegetable oils have the potential to replace polymers from petroleum sources. This paper investigates the effect of process parameters on the epoxidation of neem oil with applied Amberlite IR-120H. The method chosen for this study is forming performic acid as an oxidizing agent by mixing hydrogen peroxide with formic acid to form performic acid, where the molar ratio against neem oil varies accordingly. The highest relative conversion (51.5%) to oxirane is obtained when the formic acid/neem oil molar ratio is 1:1, hydrogen peroxide/neem oil is 4:1, the reaction temperature is maintained at 70 °C, and the stirring speed is maintained at 300 rpm with 1 g of catalyst loading. Both neem oil and its epoxide form are analyzed by FTIR, where the formation of an oxirane ring is shown at a wavenumber of 1240 cm⁻¹. Rate constant for epoxidation, \({k}_{2}\) is 4.95 (mol/L⋅min), calculated by kinetic modelling and aligned with other researchers. Kinetic modelling also shows that simulation and experiment are in acceptable disparity, considering that a few assumptions had been made.