A quantitative assessment of the reactivity of the fatty alcohols with cetrimide using immersion calorimetry

The reactivity of the fatty alcohols with cetrimide has been quantitatively assessed using immersion calorimetry. In all cases the reaction was endothermic i.e. it had a positive enthalpy. For the n-alcohols the reactivity, as evaluated by the rate of enthalpy change, decreased with increasing chain length although branching on the tetradecanol and hexadecanol resulted in a higher reactivity. Adding 1-octadecanol to 1-hexadecanol resulted in an increased reactivity rising to a maximum for mixtures containing 20-40% w/w 1-octadecanol. The results have been interpreted in terms of the polymorphic form of the alcohol.