Synthesis and evaluation of CuO/UiO-66 metal-organic frameworks as a solid catalyst for biodiesel production from waste cooking oil

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are excellent for immobilizing guest active species due to their high surface area and porosity. In this study, CuO/UiO-66 catalysts with varying amounts of CuO were successfully synthesized and used for converting waste cooking oil (WCO) to biodiesel. The catalysts were characterized using N₂ adsorption-desorption, XRD, NH₃-TPD, SEM, TEM, TGA and FTIR. The biodiesel was characterized using NMR and GC–MS. The results showed that CuO/UiO-66 displayed high catalytic activity due to the synergistic effect between UiO-66 and copper oxide in the composite. Under optimum reaction conditions, we achieved a 90.1 % conversion with the 7 %CuO/UiO-66 catalyst. This catalyst also displayed good stability and reusability with a conversion of 81.06 % after three cycles. Our kinetic studies revealed a pseudo-first-order kinetics, with 32.26 kJ/mol in activation energy, consistent with a chemically controlled reaction.