The synthesis of surfactant by alcoholysis between glyceryl trilaurate and n-amyl alcohol

摘要

The alcoholysis reaction of triglycerides in producing fatty acid alkyl ester can be prepared by using short chain alcohol such as methanolysis or ethanolysis. Similarly, partial alcoholysis can be carried out to produce mono and diglyceride which act as surfactant agents. They can be obtained either by glicerolysis or long chain hidrocarbon alcoholysis of triglyceride. In this study, the synthesis of glyceryl trilaurate was conducted by esterification of lauric acid with glycerol and glyceryl trilaurate. Then it was followed by the alcoholysis reaction with n-amil alcohol in mol ratio 1:3 using NaOCH_3 as catalyst mixed at 3000 rpm rotation in order to produce a mixture of glyceryl mono. di and trilaurate as well as n-amil laurate. The next stage was separating n-amil laurate and glyceril trilaurate from the mixture of glyceryl mono and dilaurate in ethanol. The alhoholysis reaction produced glyceril trilaurate and n-amil alcohol at around 65.55%. After determined by iodometry titration, the mixture of glyceril mono and dilaurate produced glyceril monolaurate at percentage of 15.5% after. It was found that the HLB (Hidrophilic Lipophilic Balance) value was 4.84 and determined as anti-foam agent surfactant. FT-IR spectroscopy analysis was used to confirm the structure of reaction result.