This work deals with the preparation of biolubricant basestocks through the ring-opening reaction of epoxidized soybean oil (ESO) by alcohols in presence of solid acid catalysts (SAC-13 resin). To this end, different experimental runs were carried out in a lab-scale reactor, analyzing the effect of the alcohol (methanol, ethanol, 2-propanol, 2-butanol), catalyst mass loading (from 1 to 10 wt % with respect to the oil mass) and operating temperature (60–90 °C). The main focus of investigation was oxirane conversion. The study was complemented by FT-IR, ¹H NMR and kinematic viscosity characterization of the different products of the ring-opening reaction. Experimental conversion data were fitted through a suitable kinetic model. Values of the best-fitting parameters in terms of rate constant, activation energy and catalyst reaction order were obtained, and were potentially useful for the design of an industrial process.

Measurements of the thermal conductivity for free-standing porous silicon layers were performed by means of an optical pump-probe experimental set-up. By transient heating due to laser pumping, a refractive index modulation was induced in the sample and, solving the heat propagation equation for inside the solid film, it is shown that the time decay of the nonlinear transmittance can be related to the thermal conductivity. The optical technique demonstrated here is contactless, quite simple and does not require much effort in data analysis, and is therefore very useful for thin-film characterization. The thermal conductivities of the porous silicon samples, whose porosities lay in the range 60-70%, were taken into account, and we found good agreement with results obtained with different techniques.