Determination of Castor Oil Molecular Weight by Vapour Pressure Osmometry Technique

摘要

Nowadays, the molecular weight of vegetable oil is usually determined by gasrnchromatography analysis (GC) because this analysis permits the calculation of the fattyrnacid composition of the vegetable oil. This work presents a method to measure thernmolecular weight of castor oil using vapour pressure osmometry technique (VPO) andrncompares the result with GC analysis and with data present in the open literature. ThernVPO and GC results found were 927.88 g/mol and 928.31g/mol, respectively. Thernmolecular weight of castor oil is 927 g/mol according to literature, therefore the VPOrncan be a powerful measurement technique. VPO presents an accurate and fast way tornmeasure the molecular weight of vegetable oil.