Synthesis And Properties Of Guerbet Hexadecyl Alcohol And Its Derived Surfactants

Guerbet hexadecyl alcohol (C16GA) was synthesized using the catalyst which is employed in one-step catalytic amination of fatty alcohols. Three kinds of surfactants was prepared using C16GA as intermediate, including Guerbet hexadecyl sulfate (C16GS), ethoxylated Guerbet hexadecyl alcohol (GAEOn), and Guerbet hexadecyl polyoxyethylene ether sulfate (GAE3S), and the properties of these derived surfactants were also investigated.The prepared Cu-Ni-Zn/bergmeal ternary catalysts were used in the synthesis of C16GA with octanol as reactant. The optimized reaction conditions are confirmed by orthogonal experiments:with130g octanol, the consumption of the catalyst was0.5g, the KOH used was2.2g, the reaction temperature was230℃and kept for1hour. Both the structural characterization and chemical analysis indicate that the reaction product is Guerbet hexadecyl alcohol.C16GS was synthesized by sulfating Guerbet hexadecyl alcohol using SO3/dichloroethane solution, and the influence of reaction conditions was investigated. The active matter content of the purified product was96.8%, and the structure of C16GS was confirmed by IR and1H-NMR spectroscopy. The properties of C16GS were compared with those of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), and it shows that C16GS has a better surface activity, wetting ability, and emulsifying property than SDS. The foam experiment shows that Ci6GS has a similar foamability to SDS but worse foam stability compared with SDS. As for detergency, it is found that C16GS and AEO9mixed solution shows synergism in washing carbon black test clothes.A series of ethoxylated Guerbet hexadecyl alcohol GAEOn (n=7、9、11、13、15) were synthesized by ethoxylating Guerbet hexadecyl alcohol. The surface properties and application performance were measured in comparison with those of fatty alcohol polyoxyethylene ether AEO9(synthesized from the mixture of dodecanol and tetradecanol) and AEO15(synthesized from hexadecanol). With appropriate EO number, GAEOn show good surface activity, wetting property, emulsifying performance and detergency, while the foamability of them is low.GAE3S was synthesized by sulfating ethoxylated Guerbet hexadecyl alcohol (GAEO3) using the SO3/dichloroethane solution, and the structure of it was characterized by IR spectroscopy. The properties of GAE3S were compared with those of C16GS, and it shows that GAE3S has a lower CMC than C16GS, but higher γCMC than C16GS. For the application performance, it shows that C16GS has a better wetting ability, emulsifying property, foamability than GAE3S. As for the detergency, it is also found that GAE3S and AE09mixed solution shows synergism in washing carbon black test clothes.