Abstract
Decompositon products obtained from methyl oleate by heating in a stream of air at 200°C were indentified mainly by gas chromatography. Volatile decomposition products were collected in two traps cooled by ice-water and dry ice-acetone, respectively. Decomposition products remaining in methyl oleate were separated with 1N-Na2CO3 and Girard-T reagent into various fractions on the basis of their reactivities. Each fraction thus obtained was gas-chromatographed by using silicon grease or glycol succinate column. The results showed that major parts of the decomposition products were composed of water, C8, C9 aldehydes, semialdehyde methyl esters, C7, C8 hydrocarbons and methyl esters of fatty acid, and that the existence of several fatty acids, monomethyl esters of dibasic acids and alocohols was positively identified.
The quantitative proportions of these decomposition products suggest that at such high temperature as 200°C, decomposition of methyl oleate will occur in accordance with the mechanism of so-called autoxidation and some of these decomposition product will be further oxidized.
