ARS | Publication request: Lubricant Properties of Modified Vegetable Oils

Submitted to: Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers
Publication Type: Abstract
Publication Acceptance Date: March 15, 2009
Publication Date: N/A

Technical Abstract: Lubricants made from vegetable oils represent a small section of the market today, but recent legislation in both the United States and Europe could begin to brighten their prospects due to their eco-friendly and biodegradable character unlike petroleum oil based products. In order to understand the effect of chemical modification, various epoxidized fatty acid methyl esters were prepared. Oxidation, low temperature, and frictional behaviors of these chemically modified oils were studied. The frictional behaviors have been examined as additives in hexadecane in a boundary lubrication test regime (steel contacts) using Langmuir adsorption model. The oxidation behavior was studied using pressure differential scanning calorimetry (PDSC), while the low temperature property was studied using pour-point measurements. Epoxidation of olefinic materials makes them more oxidatively stable, epoxidation of oleochemicals increases their adsorption to metal surfaces, epoxidation has a deleterious effect on a lubricants pour point and viscosity index. This information can be used to design suitable lubricant molecules that will have optimum structure for effective metal adsorption as well as exhibit excellent boundary lubrication properties.