Studies on the transesterification of glycerides: I. The methanolysis of tripalmitin catalysed by diorganotin(IV) compounds

The potential of diorganotin compounds, in particular alkoxides and phenoxides, to function as neutral and non‐corrosive catalysts in the methanolysis of tripalmitin (the main triglyceride in palm oil) to methyl palmitate has been investigated. The compounds reveal a strong dependence of catalytic activity on the nature of the organic moiety on tin, the ring‐borne substituent on the phenoxyl group and the chain length of the alkoxyl fragment, as well as the ring size in cyclic alkoxides derived from bifunctional ligands such as diethanolamine. Kinetic studies, based on detailed compositional analysis of the reaction mixture by gas chromatography, were performed typically at 70.0 ± 0.1 °C in mixed methanol–tetrahydrofuran (3:2, v/v) medium and at 1.0 mol% catalyst concentration with respect to tripalmitin. The catalysts used for the kinetic studies were dibutyl bis( p‐chlorophenoxyl)tin 1, dibutyl bis(phenoxyl)tin 2, 1,1‐dibutyl‐5‐aza‐2,8‐dioxo‐1‐stannacyclo‐octane 3, 2,2‐dibutyl‐2‐stanna‐1,3‐benzdioxane 4 and dioctyltin oxide 5. The methanolysis was shown to proceed by a consecutive reaction pathway. Numerical analysis of the rate data yielded values of the three rate constants k₁, k₂ and k₃ corresponding to the respective conversions, tripalmitin → dipalmitin → monopalmitin → glycerol. Based on t values ranging from 7.2 to 22.3 h⁻¹, the following order of catalytic activity was established: 1 > 2 > 3 ≫ 5 ≫ 4; for catalyst 4 the t value was close to that of the uncatalysed reaction. A six‐fold increase in rate was observed when the catalyst concentration was raised from 1.0 to 3.0 mol% for 3. ¹¹⁹Sn NMR analysis of the chloroform extracts of the pot residue following solvent removal at the end of 24 h of the transesterification reaction revealed that the catalysts 1 and 3 essentially retained their chemical integrity. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.