Article info.

ABSTRACT

Received date: 26/01/2016

Accepted date: 30/03/2017

In this paper, vegetable oils as refined soybean oil, refined sunflower oil and their blends of different proportions were investigated for blending and epoxidation followed by oxirane ring-opening reaction. The physicochemical properties such as viscosity, acidity value, iodine value and saponification value were reported. From the results, the blend of vegetable oils with mass ratio of 80:20 (sunflower oil: soybean oil) had higher viscosity index than individual vegetable oil, as well as suitable acidity and saponification value. However, the relatively high iodification of this blend indicated that this blend had a low oxidation stability. Hence, this mixture has been continually exposed to epoxidation reaction with the purpose of removing the presence of double bond C=C followed by oxirane ring-opening reaction. The results indicated that temperature, time of reaction, molar ratio H₂O₂/C=C influenced significantly on iodine value of obtained blend. The following conditions in epoxidation step: CH₃COOH/C=C 1:1; time of reaction 7h, temperature of reaction 60^oC, stirring speed 500 rpm and H₂O₂/C=C 3:1 could reduce effectively iodine value, from 129.6 to 6.9. In the oxiranering-opening reaction, n-butanol was used as reagent, and the final product had higher viscosity compared to epoxidized blend.

Keywords

Blends, epoxidation, iodine value, oxirane ring-opening reaction, vegetable oils

Cited as: Phuong, P. H., Trung, N. K., Thoa, D. T. K., Phu, H. C., 2017. Blending of vegetable oils and chemical modification by epoxidation followed by oxirane ring-opening reaction. Can Tho University Journal of Science. Vol 5: 109-113.