II International Symposium on Carbon for Catalysis ABSTRACTS

PP-<strong>II</strong>-6
HYDRATION OF α-PINENE OVER ACTIVATED CARBON CATALYSTS
Castanheiro J.E. 1,2 , Ramos A.M. 1 , Fonseca I.M. 1 , Botelho do Rego A.M. 3 , Vital J. 1
1 REQUIMTE, CQFB, Departamento de Química, FCT, Universidade Nova de Lisboa,
2829-516 Caparica, Portugal
2 CQE, Departamento de Química, Universidade de Évora, 7000-671 Évora, Portugal
3 CQFM, CI, Instituto Superior Técnico, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal
e-mail: jmv@dq.fct.unl.pt
1. Introduction
Activated carbons are high surface area materials, exhibiting good stability, good mechanical
resistance and high porosity. Due to these properties, they are widely used in heterogeneous
catalysis as catalysts and catalyst supports [1, 2]. The acid catalysed α−pinene hydration
yields a complex mixture of monoterpenes, being the main product, α−terpineol, widely used
in the pharmaceutics and perfume industries. Traditionally, mineral acids are used as
catalysts, but the effluents disposal leads to environmental problems. These problems can be
overcome by use of solid acid catalysts [3-5]. In this work we report the results of the
hydration of α-pinene carried out over acidic activated carbons.
2. Experimental
Catalyst samples were prepared from a commercial carbon (NORIT GAC 1210) (sample C0),
as follows: C1 – C0 stirred 1 h with HNO 3 5 M at room temperature, washed until neutral pH;
C2 – C1 treated with fuming sulphuric acid: heating in fuming sulphuric acid at 90ºC during
24 h, followed by washing until neutral pH. Catalytic experiments were carried out in a
jacketed batch reactor equipped with a stirrer, at 50º C. In a typical experiment, the reactor
was loaded with 114 mL aqueous acetone (1:1 v/v) and 0.2 g of carbon catalyst. Reactions
were started by adding 3.15 mmol of α-pinene. Stirring speed was kept at 800 min -1 .
3. Results and Discussion
Figure 1 exemplifies the TPD-MS profiles obtained by monitoring CO 2 , CO and SO 2 released
upon heating the carbon sample C4, as well as the corresponding deconvolution curves.
Surface composition was estimated by integrating the deconvolution bands.
234