Discovery of lanthanide metal oxide catalyst for transesterification reaction by fluorescence-based high-throughput...

The development of heterogeneous metal oxide catalysts for transesterification reactions is crucial owing to their seamless reusability and environmental friendliness. In recent years, numerous studies have been conducted on rare-earth oxides, such as lanthanide metal oxides. Various metal oxides were screened for transesterification using a new fluorescence-based high-throughput screening (HTS) method with a pyrene excimer probe, bis(4-(1-pyrenyl)butyl) maleate (BPBM). Praseodymium(iv) oxide (PrO₂) yielded the highest catalytic activity among the prepared metal oxides. Various substrates were successfully transesterified, and biodiesel was produced in a high yield (90%) from soybean oil through transesterification using the catalyst. The selected catalyst required minimal amounts for the transesterification of various organic substrates (0.7 mol%) and soybean oil (0.8 wt%).