Abstract: Vegetable oil epoxides were synthesized with electrochemical method.The optimum conditions for castor oil epoxidation technology were determinated by L₁₈(3⁷) orthogonal test.The starting material castor oil as well as its epoxidized derivatives was characterized and compared by FT-IR and TG analysis.Experimental results showed that the optimum conditions are:reaction time,4 h;pH value,6.5;reaction temperature,30 ℃;oxygen flow rate,3 cm³/s;current density,0.3 A/cm²;molar ratio of castor oil double bonds to HCOOH,8;and catalyst (0.1 mol/L hydrochloric acid) dosage,0.3 mL.Under such conditions,the relative yield of epoxidized castor oil achieves 53.7%.The FT-IR spectra indicated that new material containing -C-O-C- group was produced accompanying with the disappearance of -C=C- group;and TG analysis indicated that the thermal stability of -C-O-C- groups is stronger than that of -C=C- groups under certain conditions.Such results suggested that synthesis of vegetable oil epoxides with electrochemical method is feasible.In addition,similar tests for using of soybean oil,corn oil and peanut oil were also done.

Key words: vegetable oil, electrochemical synthesis, epoxidation, unsaturated fatty acid