Abstract
Esterification of commercial behenic acid with fatty alcohols (decanol, lauryl alcohol, myristyl alcohol and cetyl alcohol) was studied using n-butyl benzene as solvent and tetra n-butyl titanate (TBT) as catalyst. The effects of reaction temperature (165–185 °C) and catalyst loading (0.3–1.2%, wt/wt) on the conversion of behenic acid were studied for all the alcohols. The reaction showed first order dependence with respect to fatty alcohols and behenic acid concentration. The values of activation energy obtained for the catalyzed reaction of behenic acid with decanol, lauryl alcohol, myristyl alcohol and cetyl alcohol were found to be 68.1, 69.2, 64.5 and 67.3 kJ mol−1, respectively. The values of activation energy obtained for the uncatalyzed reaction of behenic acid with decanol, lauryl alcohol, myristyl alcohol and cetyl alcohol were found to be 86.2, 79.6, 78.6 and 87.1 kJ mol−1, respectively. Physical properties such as melting point, viscosity, specific gravity, and refractive index of these esters are reported.
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