The percentage yield of POTMP ester produced was 82% and exist in liquid form at room temperature. Presence of ester group also evidenced by 1H NMR at 2.27-2.30 ppm and 13C NMR at 173.52-173.54 ppm. The result showed that POTMP ester has successfully synthesized with 97.7% composition of triesters (TE), proved by GC chromatogram.
The structure confirmation of POTMP ester was proven by Fourier Transformation Infra-Red (FTIR), proton and carbon Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (1H-NMR and 13C-NMR) spectroscopy analysis. Gas Chromatography equipped with a Flame Ionization Detector (GC-FID) was used to determine the percentage composition of POTMP ester. The synthesis of ester was carried out via esterification of palm oil fatty acid (POFA) with TMP in the presence of 2% sulphuric acid as catalyst at 150 Â☌ for 5 hours. This drawback can be overcome by chemical modification through esterification with polyhydric alcohol such as trimethylolpropane (TMP). However, palm oil cannot be used directly as lubricant due to some performance limitations such as thermal and oxidative stability.
RBD palm oil become one of the interesting renewable resources in biolubricant application. Nor, Nurazira Mohd Derawi, Darfizzi Salimon, Jumat Synthesis of palm oil fatty acid and trimethylolpropane based ester for biolubricant base stocks
