Abstract CuCrO2 was synthesized by solution combustion synthesis (SCS) and applied as a heterogeneous catalyst to produce soybean biodiesel. The combustion reaction was carried out using urea as a fuel, and copper (II) and chromium (III) nitrates as precursors. After the powders’ obtention, these were calcined and functionalized in an acidic medium. The powders were characterized by thermogravimetry (TG), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and infrared spectroscopy (IR) techniques. The TG curve revealed that the formation of the CuCrO2 in the combustion reaction remained stable up to 1000 °C. The XRD results confirmed the formation of the CuCrO2 compound. The SEM images showed that the crystallinity of the samples increased after the calcination process. The IR spectra showed the presence of delafossite characteristic bands. After the transesterification reaction, biodiesel was obtained with a yield of around 80%. Thus, catalysts based on delafossite synthesized through the combustion method and functionalized showed to be promising for the transesterification reaction of vegetable oils.

Crystallization kinetics parameters of a stoichiometric glass with the composition Li1.5Al0.5Ge1.5(PO4)3 were investigated by subjecting parallelepipedonal samples (3 × 3 × 1.5 mm) to heat treatment in a differential scanning calorimeter at different heating rates (3, 5, 8 and 10 °C/min). The data were analyzed using Ligero's and Kissinger's methods to determine the activation energy (E) of crystallization, which yielded, respectively, E = 415 ± 37 kJ/mol and 378 ± 19 kJ/mol. Ligero's method was also employed to calculate the Avrami coefficient (n), which was found to be n = 3.0. A second set of samples were heat-treated in a tubular furnace at temperatures above the glass transition temperature, Tg, to induce crystallization. The X-ray diffraction analysis of these samples indicated the presence of LiGe2(PO4)3 which displays a NASICON-type structure. An analysis by optical microscopy revealed the presence of spheric crystals located primarily in the volume, in agreement with the crystallization mechanism predicted by the Avrami coefficient.