Oleic acid‐based poly(alkyl methacrylate) as bio‐based viscosity control additive for mineral and vegetable oils

This work described the design of an efficient oleic‐acid based viscosity control additive for lubricating oils as potential alternative to petroleum poly(alkyl)methacrylates (PAMAs) additives. Hence, Poly(2‐(methacryloyloxy)ethyl oleate) (PMAEO) was synthesized by free radical homopolymerization to afford a comb‐like polymer structure similar to common PAMAs. Then, in order to evaluate its efficiency as viscosity control additive, the resulting polymer was mixed at several concentrations from 1%wt to 10%wt with different oil compositions, including a mineral paraffinic oil (MPO) and an organic triglyceride oil (OTO). For all polymer‐solution blends, relative viscosities (RV) measurements showed that addition of PMAEO in MPO had a better contribution on oil viscosity at 100°C than at 20°C (RV = 1.16 at 40°C while RV = 1.25 for 3%wt of PMAEO in MPO). These results were attributed to the coil expansion of polymer chains with increasing temperature. Additionally, rheological studies showed that addition of 3%wt of PMAEO in MPO improved the MPO cold flow properties at −30°C by decreasing the required yield stress to put the oil in motion from 310 mPa to 42 mPa. These results are in total accordance with the common viscosimetric properties of PAMAs‐based viscosity control additives at low and high temperature in mineral oils. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 59:E164–E170, 2019. © 2018 Society of Plastics Engineers