Research Article
Kouroosh Saremi, Taghi Tabarsa
Abstract
Soybean oil containing 26% oleic acid, 7% Linolenic, 4% Stearic, 11% Palmitic and 52% linoleic acid, was epoxidised with hydrogen peroxide as oxygen donor,carrier in presence of catalytic amount of an formic acid. Vegetable oils are used as polymerizable monomers in a radiation curable system due to their environmentally friendly character and low cost when compared to products from petroleum. To produce epoxidized soybean oil (ESO), the epoxidation was carried out by conventional chemistry at 50oC, speed of 550 RPM, and atmospheric pressure for about 10 h. An excess amount of hydrogen peroxide was necessary in the reaction to achieve high reaction conversion. A possibly undesirable side reaction was reaction of the epoxy ring opening resulting in hydroxyl functional groups observed by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). The highest epoxy content of ESO produced had 6.1% (wt). This project hopes to help Iran to start producing vegetable oil-based epoxy ourselves.