Phenoxy‐alkyl maleates as phase‐selective organogelators for gelation of edible oils

Abstract

Phase selective gelation may solve environmental problems such as water pollution and fire accidents during oil storage, a major problem for aquatic bodies. The objective of this work was to synthesize a series of phenoxy‐alkyl maleates (n‐PAM) oleogelators with homologous alkyl chain lengths for efficient phase selective gelation. The n‐PAM molecules have been found to form oleogel in various edible oils among which sunflower oil shows best gelation. The gelation behavior increases with increase in alkyl chain length of the n‐PAM gelators as observed from their low minimum gelation concentration (MGC) values. Oleogels thermal stability was examine through tube inversion method and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The rheological studies suggest that the oleogel of sunflower oil is mechanically stable and show typical viscoelastic properties. The field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE‐SEM) study of the gels showed sheet‐like morphology. Furthermore, the n‐PAM gelators exhibited quick phase selective gelation of edible oils at low MGC. Both the edible oil and gelator were quantitatively regained from recovered oleogel by employing the vacuum distillation. We believe that these n‐PAMs could aid in reducing the environmental impacts of oil spills.

Practical Applications: The phenoxy‐alkyl maleates gelators present in the MS show gelation ability in various edible oils at low minimum gelation concentration. These molecules also form efficient phase selective gelation with edible oils. Both oil and gelator can be recovered through vacuum distillation and gelator can be reused multiple times. Thus, all these advantages strongly point out their bright future in particular in edible oil spill recovery, could aid in reducing the environmental impacts from oil spills.

https://ift.tt/2EsEb9a