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The prediction of ethylene oxide distributions in mixed alcohol ethoxylates
Author(s) -
Geissler Paul R.,
Johnson Adrain E.,
Talley Larry D.
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
journal of the american oil chemists' society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.512
H-Index - 117
eISSN - 1558-9331
pISSN - 0003-021X
DOI - 10.1007/bf02663832
Subject(s) - ethylene oxide , chemistry , alcohol , reaction rate constant , chromatography , organic chemistry , kinetics , polymer , physics , copolymer , quantum mechanics
Abstract Supercritical fluid Chromatographic analyses of ethoxylates of 2‐ ethylhexanol in the pure state and in mixtures were used to determine relative propagation‐ to‐ initiation ethoxylation rate constants. Earlier work with normal octanol was verified in that ethylene oxide distributions were found to be unaffected by the presence of other alcohols in the ethoxylation of mixed alcohols. An apparent decrease in the relative ethoxylation rates with increasing number of ethylene oxide monomers in ethoxylates is attributed to truncation of the measured distributions and is eliminated by adding small amounts of higher ethoxylates to the distribution. The Weibull‐ Tornquist effect of decreasing relative rate constants as the overall average ethylene oxide‐ to‐ alcohol ratio increases was again observed. Rate constants of the ethoxylation of 2‐ ethylhexanol and its ethylene oxide adducts relative to the ethoxylation of normal octanol were determined from the analysis of ethoxylates of their mixtures. A computer model using averaged relative rate constants was developed that effectively predicts the ethylene oxide distributions in ethoxylates of alcohol mixtures.