Synthesis, Characterization, Tribological and Rheological Properties of Oleyl Oleate Based Biolubricant

Al-Arafi, Naowara; Salih, Nadia; Salimon, Jumat

doi:10.21608/ejchem.2021.77715.3797

Synthesis, Characterization, Tribological and Rheological Properties of Oleyl Oleate Based Biolubricant

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Benghazi University, P.O. Box 1308, Benghazi, Libya

² Department of Chemical Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia

10.21608/ejchem.2021.77715.3797

Abstract

Oleyl oleate (liquid wax ester); is a principal component of sperm whale bubbler oil has an important industrial application such as cosmetic, pharmaceutical and biolubricant. In this work, synthesis of oleyl oleate was carried out through esterification between oleoyl alcohol and oleic acid using acidic heterogeneous catalyst, sodium hydrogen sulfate. About 95% of oleoyl oleate was produce at the optimal condition. The molecular structure of oleyl oleate has been confirmed by using FTIR, NMR and ESI-MS spectroscopies. The physicochemical properties of oleyl oleate were investigated. The results showed that the ester has pour point at -31 ± 1˚C, flash point at 320 ± 2˚C, viscosity index of 197.51 ± 1.4 and oxidative stability at 186.9 ˚C ± 1.8. Furthermore, tribological and rheological analysis of oleyl oleate were performed. Oleoyl oleate can be classified as a Newtonian fluid with having friction coefficient of 0.53 ± 0.08 at 100 ˚C operation condition. The presence of both ester functional group and long chain carbon moiety in oleyl oleate structure has a positive impact on wear protection thus plausible to be use as general purpose industrial biolubricant.

Keywords