Nitrogen-doped mesoporous carbon as an efficient metal-free catalyst for biodiesel production

MOF@COF hybrid materials are precursors for producing metal-free N-doped carbon materials-based catalysts. This work is allocated to the production of nitrogen-doped mesoporous carbon from a metal-organic framework (MOF, named Zn-MOF-74), with modification of triazine-based covalent-organic frameworks (TriCF) via high-temperature pyrolysis. The obtained porous N-rich carbon materials provided rich active sites for the esterification of purslane oil. The maximum biodiesel production yield reached 95% for the following parameters: catalyst concentration of 900 mg, methanol: Oil ratio of (10:1), reaction time of 10 h, and temperature of 65 °C. Furthermore, all the measured physicochemical properties are according to the ASTM standard. Therefore, it is found that purslane is an appropriate crop to use for biodiesel production.