Abstract
Polymeric materials derived from fatty acids (FA)s were synthesized through free radical polymerization and evaluated as viscosity index improvers (VII) in an organic triglyceride lube oil (OTO). For this purpose, various FA-based copolymers were designed to own a reduced solubility at low temperature in OTO which can be gradually improved by increasing temperature. Different fatty amide methacrylates were chosen for their poorly oil-miscible repeating units while fatty ester methacrylates, 2-(methacryloyloxy)ethyl oleate (MAEO) and 2-(methacryloyloxy)ethyl 4-(dodecylthio)oleate (MAEOSC12), were used as oil-miscible comonomers for providing copolymers with a minimum of solubility in the lube oil. All copolymers were synthesized with a 50:50 M feed ratio and were fully characterized through 1H NMR, SEC, DSC, and TGA analyses. Then, rheological study of oil-copolymer blends revealed that copolymers containing –NH function were able to have a higher impact on oil viscosity at high than at low temperatures suggesting the coil copolymer expansion. This improvement of thickening power with temperature in OTO was further optimized by increasing the copolymer molecular weight, dispersity, concentration, pendant aliphatic chain length or by adding an additional aliphatic chain in the copolymer backbone. Moreover, copolymer additions in OTO did not disturb the initial Newtonian behavior of OTO at −30 °C which corresponds to the lube oil pour point.