D-optimal Design Optimization for the Separation of Oleic Acid from Malaysian High Free Fatty Acid Crude Palm Oil Fatty Acids Mixture Using Urea Complex Fractionation

Oleic acid (OA) rich vegetable oils is important for the daily essential dietary oils intake but restrict to particular oil such as olive oil. However OA enrichment to other vegetable oil such as palm oil is always possible. OA can be obtained from cheap resources such as high free fatty acid crude palm oil (HFFA-CPO). OA concentrate from HFFA-CPO fatty acids mixture requires efficient and low cost technique. Urea complex crystallization fractionation is a classic method for fractionating saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids from polyunsaturated fatty acids of many vegetable oils. In this work, the separation and purification of oleic acid (OA) from unsaturated fatty acids mixture fraction (USFA) of HFFA-CPO fatty acids mixture by urea complex fractionation (UCF) was studied. The crystallization reaction conditions of urea inclusion for the non-urea complex fraction (NUCF) were optimized using the response surface methodology (RSM) and the optimal model was developed. The results showed high content of OA (88%) in urea complex fraction (UCF) with 86% yield at optimal conditions of urea-to-USFAs ratio of 4.62 : 1 (w/w), crystallization temperature at –10°C and crystallization time of 24 h. The results have demonstrated that urea complex crystallization fractionation method is a very effective with low cost, stable, obtainable, and comparatively ease to recover of OA from polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) of an oil fatty acids mixture. Pure OA is plausible to be used back for the OA enrichment modification into palm oil for new dietary oil.

Photocatalytic Degradation and Antibacterial Study of Copper(II) Mustard Thiourea Complex

Aims: The aim of this research work is to synthesise, study and analyse photocatalytic degradation, kinetics. Background: Copper(II) mustard thio urea complex has been synthesized and characterized through FT-IR, NMR, ESR studies. Objective: Photocatalytic degradation of copper(II) mustard thio urea complex was studied in the presence of ZnO as a catalyst in the solution form, using a non polar solvent benzene and a polar solvent methanol with different compositions. Antibacterial activities of copper(II) complex have also been studied against Staphylococcus aureus. Method: O.D. was measured after different time intervals spectrophotometrically to measure the degradation of the complex. Result: Plot of 2+ log O.D. (absorbance) versus time was plotted and found to be linear. The heterogeneous photocatalysis followed pseudo-first-order reaction kinetics. The present study suggests that the CMT complex shows antibacterial activity at different concentrations. Conclusion: The rate of photocatalytic degradation of CMT complex was studied and analyzed. It has been found that the rate of degradation varies with different parameters like the concentration of complex, the amount of catalyst, light intensity, solvent polarity etc. The CMT complex derived from natural mustard oil has shown an inhibitory effect on the growth of S. aureus which may cause skin diseases.

Study of Photocatalytic Dergradation, Kinetics and Microbial Activities of Copper (ii) Soya Urea Complex in Non Aqueous Media

Aims: The aim of this research work is to synthesise, study and analyse photocatalytic degradation, kinetics and microbial activity of new surfactant Copper (II) soya urea complex(CSU). Background: Photocatalytic degradation has attracted the attention of scientific community throughout the world due to its multiple applications in environment, energy, waste water treatment, pollution control, green chemistry, etc. Copper (II) soya urea complex has been synthesized and characterized through FT-IR, NMR, ESR studies. Objective: Present work deals with the study of photocatalytic degradation of Copper (II) soya urea complex by using ZnO as semiconductor. This study employs a semiconductor catalyst using non polar and non aqueous solvent in photocatalytic degradation. Reaction rate is chosen as the photocatalytic activity, which has been governed by several factors. Antibacterial activities of Copper (II) complex have also been studied against Staphylococcus aureus. Method: Optical density (O.D.) was measured after different time intervals spectrophotometrically to measure the degradation of complex. Mueller-Hinton agar medium was used for antimicrobial activity of synthesized compound at different concentrations by disk/ well diffusion susceptibility testing. Result: Plot of 2+log O.D. (absorbance) versus time was plotted and found linear. The heterogeneous photocatalysis followed pseudo-first-order reaction kinetics.The present study suggests that Copper (II) soya urea (CSU) complex shows antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus at different concentrations. Conclusion: The results were used to determine the rate of photocatalytic degradation of CSU complex .It has been found that rate of degradation varies with different parameters like concentration of complex, amount of catalyst, light intensity, solvent polarity etc. CSU complex derived from soyabean oil has been shown an inhibitory effect on the growth of S. aureus which may causes skin disease.