Open Access

ARTICLE

Synthesis and Kinetics of Hydrogenated Rosin Dodecyl Ester as an Environmentally Friendly Plasticizer

Qiaoguang Li¹, Sheng Gong¹, Jie Yan¹, Hongchao Hu¹, Xugang Shu^1,2,*, Hanqing Tong^3,*, Zhiye Cai¹

1 School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering, Guangzhou, 510225, China
2 Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Waterfowl Healthy Breeding, Guangzhou, 510225, China
3 College of Chemical Engineering, Guangdong University of Petrochemical Technology, Maoming, 525000, China

* Corresponding Authors: Xugang Shu. Email: ; Hanqing Tong. Email:

Journal of Renewable Materials 2020, 8(3), 289-300. https://doi.org/10.32604/jrm.2020.08897

Received 26 August 2019; Accepted 23 October 2019; Issue published 01 March 2020

Abstract

The plasticizer is an important polymer material additive. Non-toxic and environmentally friendly plasticizers are developed recently in order to decrease fossil fuel reserves, serious environmental pollution and the toxicity of phthalate esters. In this study, a new, efficient and environmentally friendly plasticizer of hydrogenated rosin dodecyl ester was prepared by an esterification reaction of hydrogenated rosin and dodecanol. The influences of different reaction conditions (including different catalysts, the catalyst concentration, the ratio of the reactants, reaction temperature, and reaction time) on the esterification yield are examined and discussed. Hydrogenated rosin dodecyl ester with 71.8% yield was synthesized under the optimized reaction conditions (1:0.8 molar ratio of rosin to dodecanol, 1 mol% tetrabutyl titanate concentration, and 210°C for 6 h). The esterification reaction is a second-order reaction, and kinetic calculations showed that the activation energy is 39.77 KJ·mol⁻¹ . The structure of the hydrogenated rosin dodecyl ester was confirmed by FT-IR spectroscopy and ¹³C NMR spectrum. Besides, the thermal stability of target product (hydrogenated rosin dodecyl ester) was also tested by thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), which showed a good thermal stability.

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Keywords

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