Fatty acid ethyl esters (FAEEs) derived from vegetable oils and ethanol are promising bio-based chemicals for various applications such as biofuel, monomers for polyesters, and fine chemicals. However, the limited conversion and yield are obtained in the conventional methods due to low boiling point of ethanol that thus requires conducting the reaction at low temperature. This work demonstrates high yield of FAEEs from soybean, rice bran and palm oil with ethanol by performing the transesterification at high temperatures of 150-200°C by using CaO catalyst in a high pressure reactor. The results demonstrate the complete reaction for all vegetable oils with low ethanol to oil molar ratio of 6:1 and 1 wt.% CaO catalyst. Higher reaction temperature results in faster reaction while keeping high conversion of ≥ 99.0%. The unsaturated components in FAEE products are consistent with their original fatty acid chain. Moreover, the high conversion can be achieved even in the reaction conducted with low ethanol to oil molar ratio of 4.5:1 and 0.5 wt.% CaO catalyst at 180 °C in the palm oil transesterification. The catalyst can be reused for at least 3 times with the conversion higher than 94.0%. In addition, the activation energy (Ea), enthalpy of activation (ΔH‡), entropy of activation (ΔS‡) and Gibbs free energy of activation (ΔG‡) are also obtained.

Cationic gemini surfactants having a quaternary ammonium headgroup have been synthesized from oleic acid. The hydrocarbon chain is covalently bound to the terminal carbonyl group of oleic acid via an amide bond, while the quaternary ammonium headgroup is introduced onto the cis double bond of oleic acid. The Krafft temperature of these surfactants drops below room temperature (ca. 25°C) when the counterion is exchanged from Br– to Cl–. The aqueous solution properties of the Cl series of surfactants have been assessed by means of pyrene fluorescence, dynamic light scattering (DLS), and static surface tension measurements. An increased hydrocarbon chain length results in a lower critical micelle concentration (cmc) and a higher adsorption efficiency at the air/aqueous solution interface. Surface tension measurements suggest the formation of premicelles at concentrations below cmc, whereas, above cmc, DLS indicates the formation of micellar aggregates whose diameter ranges from 5 to 10 nm. We, furthermore, characterized the adsorption of these surfactants to the silica/aqueous solution interface and observed their spontaneous adsorption to the solid surface by electrostatic and intermolecular hydrophobic interactions. The combination of soft-contact imaging atomic force microscopy (AFM) and force-curve data suggests bilayer formation above cmc, which is reflective of the large packing parameter of the gemini surfactants. Interestingly, we found the repulsive interaction observed during compression of the adsorbed layer to be relatively weak, as a result of the low adsorption density and/or the loose molecular packing arrangement, which arises from the asymmetric structure.