Synthesis of new bio-based surfactants from cashew nutshell liquid in water

9^th World Congress on Green Chemistry and Technology

September 17-19, 2018 | Amsterdam, Netherlands

Valentina Bragoni and Lukas J GooBen

Ruhr Universitat Bochum, Germany

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Environ Anal Chem

Abstract :

Cashew nutshell liquid (CNSL) is an inedible waste product (1.000.000 t/a) in the cashew nut processing and is an excellent candidate for the synthesis of bio-based synthetically valuable compounds, as its production does not compete with the land use for food production. CNSL is a mixture of phenols bearing a 15-carbon side chain with different degrees of unsaturation. We have developed an eco-friendly and waste minimised concept for the synthesis of amine-based surfactants from CNSL. The key step of the procedure is a reductive amination of CNSL with molecular hydrogen in water as solvent, and palladium on charcoal as catalyst. The resulting cyclohexyl amines are successfully converted into N-oxide, betaine and quaternary ammonium tensides. Their surfactant properties (surface tension and critical micellar concentration) have been determined and resulted comparable with those of state-of the-art commercial tensides, opening up a wealth of commercial applications. In the case of the particularly valuable N-oxide surfactant, a one pot synthesis with a remarkably low E-factor of 2 was realised in water as the sole solvent, with a hydrogen peroxide oxidation and purification by simple water extraction, thus avoiding the use of waste-intensive purification techniques. Overall, the process provides a new, eco-friendly procedure for the transformation of renewable waste products into industrially valuable compounds.

Biography :

Valentina Bragoni has studied Chemistry at the University of Rome, Tor Vergata and started her PhD in July 2016 at the Ruhr Universität Bochum under Prof. Dr. Lukas J Gooßen.

E-mail: Valentina.bragoni@rub.de