Rate constants of oxidation of unsaturated fatty esters studied by chemiluminescence

This study deals with oxidation kinetics of three unsaturated fatty esters: methyl oleate, methyl linoleate and methyl linolenate at temperatures ranging from 90 to 150 °C. The reaction was monitored by chemiluminescence. A kinetic model was derived from a simple mechanistic scheme, in which initiation is due to hydroperoxides decomposition, whereas propagation results from the abstraction of the most labile hydrogen and termination results only from the bimolecular combination of peroxyl radicals. Analysis of induction period duration indicated that hydroperoxides mainly decompose by a bimolecular process. The model well predicts the main features of the experimental chemiluminescence curves. Kinetic parameters of the three unsaturated fatty esters were assessed from inverse method and discussed.