Synthesis and characterization of biodegradable palm palmitic acid based bioplastic

This study involves the quantitative analysis of high free fatty acid crude palm oil, the separation of palmitic acid and synthesis of palm palmitic acid-based bioplastic. Synthesis of dimethyl 2-tetradecylmalonate (DMTDM) using methyl palmitate (MP) with sodium hydride (NaH) in the presence of reactive solvent of dimethyl carbonate (DMC) was carried out. The reaction conditions comprise at a mole ratio of MP: DMC: NaH: dimethylformamide (DMF) (0.1:2:0.25:1) at 60 °C for 14 h with 88.3 ± 1.4% yield. FTIR spectra of DMTDM showed the ester carbonyl group at 1740 cm^-1. The polymerization of DMTDM with 1,6-hexandiol or 1,12-dodecandiol was carried out using titanium (IV) isopropoxide Ti(OiPr)₄ as the catalyst and reaction time of 24 h. The results showed that the poly(dodecyl 2-tetradecylmalonte) (PDTDM) exhibited good thermal properties compared to poly(hexyl 2-tetradecylmalonte) (PHTDM). The increase of the chain length of diol in PDTDM improved the thermal properties of polyester with glass transition, T_g of 13 ºC and melting point of 51 ºC with a molecular weight of 12508 Da and polydispersity index (PDI) of 1.4. In general, the synthetic polyesters can be used as internalplasticizer in bio-based industry.