Enzymatic Synthesis and Evaluation of Surface Active Properties of Di-Basic Acid Esters of Polyethylene Glycols

Abstract

The present work has synthesized two polyethylene glycol (PEG) esters with two di-basic acids by bioesterification process and has investigated the interface properties like interfacial tension, surface excess concentration, minimum surface area per mole and as well as the Gibbs adsorption and thermodynamic behavior of micelle formation for the PEG-400 esters of the two acids. The esterification reaction was carried out by agitating the reactants in different molar ratios with Mucor miehei (RMIM) lipase enzyme at 70-75 °C for 7 hours and 2 mm of Hg pressure. The conversion of PEG to esters ranged from 40-64% depending on the molecular size of di-basic acids. © 2006, Japan Oil Chemists' Society. All rights reserved.