Mechanical Properties and Friction Dynamics of Organogels Solidified with Rice Paraffin.

Raw materials suitable for a sustainable society have attracted interest in the cosmetics industry. We focused on rice bran as a sustainable material and evaluated the gelation behavior of paraffin extracted from rice bran (rice paraffin) against liquid paraffin, squalane, jojoba oil, and silicone oil. In addition, the frictional properties of the prepared organogel on an artificial skin surface were evaluated using a sinusoidal motion friction evaluation system. Rice paraffin solidified all oils even at the lowest wax concentration of 5 wt%. The hardness and kinetic friction coefficient µ k increased with an increase in the wax composition. The hardness and µ k of organogels solidified with rice paraffin were smaller than those of gels solidified with petroleum-derived paraffin. These differences are caused by the smaller carbon amount of rice paraffin. The friction parameters depended on the type of oil: the µ k of RLG composed of rice and liquid paraffin was greater than that of the other three oils (R, L, and G denote rice paraffin, liquid paraffin, and gel, respectively). These findings promote the development of lipsticks and cleansing gels consisting of sustainable development goal-responsive raw materials.

Controlling reaction selectivity for sugar fatty acid ester synthesis by using resins with different basicities.

A strongly basic ion-exchange resin catalyst was reported to exhibit a high catalytic activity in transesterification to produce a bio-based surfactant, sugar ester under mild condition. However, the side-reactions to decompose the reactant and the product were found to occur. This study was aimed to improve the selectivity of sugar ester synthesis by newly focusing on the basicity of the resin. A weakly basic resin (Diaion WA20) with a lower mass transfer resistance suppressed the decompositions while maintaining synthesis rate. Controlling molar ratio of the reactants in the intraparticle reaction field also increased the reaction selectivity, 72.1% and product yield, 57.5%. Both values were drastically increased compared to the reported values with the strongly basic resin (selectivity 50.9%, yield 14.3%). This is the first knowledge to show a high catalytic activity of weakly basic resin. These results suggest that a more efficient continuous production process would be possible.

Novel simple process for tocopherols selective recovery from vegetable oils by adsorption and desorption with an anion-exchange resin.

A novel and simple low-temperature process was used to recover tocopherols from a deodorizer distillate, which is a by-product of edible oil refining. The process consists of three operations: the esterification of free fatty acids with a cation-exchange resin catalyst, the adsorption of tocopherols onto an anion-exchange resin, and tocopherol desorption from the resin. No degradation of tocopherols occurred during these processes. In the tocopherol-rich fraction, no impurities such as sterols or glycerides were present. These impurities are commonly found in the product of the conventional process. This novel process improves the overall recovery ratio and the mass fraction of the product (75.9% and 51.0wt%) compared with those in the conventional process (50% and 35wt%).