KINETIC STUDY OF SELF-ESTERIFIED PALMBASED C12 FATTY ACID AND DIETHYLENE GLYCOL USING CONVENTIONAL AND MICROWAVE HEATING

Diethylene glycol dilaurate (DEG-DL), which is derived from palm oil, may be produced using either esterification or a transesterification technique. Moreover, either a catalytic or non-catalytic reaction can help the process, along with or without the use of a solvent. However, currently the production of DEG-DL is still using the conventional method with a longer time to produce a good quality ester. In this work, the DEG-DL production was done using a solvent-free microwave heating method in the absence of a catalyst. The solvent-free microwave heating method exhibited itself as an effective method to produce DEG-DL with a shorter reaction time from 22 hr to 2 hr compared to conventional heating. The DEG-DL produced has been characterised using FTIR and 1H-NMR as well as its acid value to observe the trend. The effects of kinetic and thermodynamic parameters of the ester were investigated and compared between both heating methods. Based on the result obtained, the kinetic reaction fitted the pseudo-first-order well with 24% decreased in the activation energy and the pre-exponential factor increased by 93% when comparing conventional and microwave heating methods. The DEG-DL produced is a potential ingredient to be used as coalescent aid in latex paint formulations.