Study of Catalyst and Co- Catalyst Effect on Preparation of Lubricant from Heavy Propylene Tetramer (HPT)

In this research we used Heavy Propylene Tetramer (HPT) and A1C13 —BF3 (Lewis acids) ascatalyst and ethanol, n-propanol and n-butanol as co-catalyst. Using Lewis acids as catalyst, theHPTs form molecules with higher molecular weight. Since the raw materials of the reaction are byproducts of other reactions, are not pure and contain various compounds with different M.W andalso different chemical and physical properties. This fact affects catalyst weight ratio which mustbe applied for a better result.The effect of different catalysts and co-catalysts on yielded lubricant and reaction yield isinvestigated. The results show that using alcohol with higher M.W as co- catalyst, increasesreaction yield and iodine number, and also a better lubricant can be obtained. Also, A1C13 seemsto be a better catalyst in laboratory scale research comparing to BF3.