Abstract:
Recently environmental awareness and reduction of world fossil fuel reserves have enforced the need to look for a
replacement of mineral oils with environmentally friendly and nontoxic epoxy oil vegetable-based. The current study implies
that Epoxidized podocarpus falcatus oil can be a substitute as a raw material for the production of a variety of chemicals and
the replacement of petroleum products in composite matrices because of having high reactivity of oxirane ring. The
podocarpus falcatus oil was obtained by using the solvent extraction method. In this present investigation, the extracted
podocarpus falcatus oil was epoxidized using a performic acid generated in situ by the reaction of aqueous hydrogen peroxide
and carboxylic acid in presence of strong Sulphuric acid. A maximum percentage of conversion of oil and selectivity of
epoxidized oil were found to be at 63°C temperature, 1.4:1 molar ratio of hydrogen peroxide to ethylene unsaturation double
bond of podocarpus falcatus oil, and 4 hours of time reaction. The effective synthesis of epoxidation reaction for confirmation
on the investigation of epoxidized podocarpus falcatus oil was characterized by identifying the structure, functional group, and
composition of podocarpus falcatus seed oil, in comparison to epoxidized podocarpus falcatus oil, using Fourier Transform
Infrared Spectroscopy.
