Naked Science Forum
Non Life Sciences => Chemistry => Topic started by: almar_96 on 31/10/2021 10:31:20
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I'm a mechanical engineer, and I've been assigned to test a series of bio-lubricants. The problem is, the person by whom I was assigned those tests backd off from our collaboration, and we were supposed to write a paper together. The tests are done, my time was wasted and here comes the problem: I have no clear idea of what exactly did I test!
All I know is that, during our discussions, they briefly mentioned that one of the lubricants was, quote "a polyester obtained from fatty acids of sunflower oil and polyglycerol", while the other was "an amide obtained from fatty acids of sunflower oil and diethanolamine".
Being a mechanical engineer, my knowledge of organic chemistry is very limited (our curriculum included only 1 semester of inorganic chemistry). I don't know how to name these compounds! I tried searching the web, and depending on how I rephrased my words, I got various results of different compounds. For instance, if I typed "polyglycerol ester of fatty acids", I got as results a powder. The substances I tested were in a liquid state of aggregation.
Could someone be kind and tell me what is the "scientific nomenclature" of these compounds? English is not even my 1st language, so this made matters even harder. Also, a few words about the processes through which they are obtained would come in very handy!
Thank you in advance! Any answer or suggestion is very welcomed!
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All I know is that, during our discussions, they briefly mentioned that one of the lubricants was, quote "a polyester obtained from fatty acids of sunflower oil and polyglycerol", while the other was "an amide obtained from fatty acids of sunflower oil and diethanolamine".
I think you have to have the chemical formula for the polyester and the amide to name them. I assume you have the formula or it is not going to be much of a paper.
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Sunflower oil is a mixture of materials so any product derived from it is also a mixture (unless you go to a lot of trouble to separate the different components.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunflower_oil#Composition
It gets more complicated because the polyglycerol is also a mixture.
Commercially these products are always referred to by names like "polyester obtained from fatty acids of sunflower oil and polyglycerol" because that is how the stuff is made.
There may be different grades depending on the relative proportions of acid to polyol.
It is perfectly legitimate to use those names in your report. You might want to explain that they refer to complex mixtures rather than single components.
Since linoleic acid
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linoleic_acid
is the commonest fatty acid in the oil you could say that this compound is fairly representative of the amide you use
https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/9976267
Similarly, you could use something like this as representative of the polyglycerol ester.
https://www.guidechem.com/trade/polyglycerol-esters-of-fatty-a-id1982785.html