Butoxypolyoxypropylene glycol and butoxypolyoxyethylene-polyoxypropylene glycol with varying molecular weights were prepared utilising the ring-opening addition reaction of propylene oxide and ethylene oxide, and viscosity, pour point, solubility in water, surface tension of the aqueous solution, and other properties were measured.
They have high viscosity index and low pour point which are characteristic of excellent synthetic liquid oil.
They behave completely differently towards water from petroleum hydrocarbons and fats and oils; they become more hydrophilic as the oxyethylene content increases.
Butoxypolyoxypropylene glycol becomes more and more hydrophobic as the molecular weight increases, but is soluble in water to some extent at low temperatures.
The aqueous solutions of the compounds studied are considerably surface active and butoxypolyoxypropylene glycol is particularly so at molecular weights of 1, 100-1, 700.
As mentioned above, these polyalkylene glycol derivatives are very distinguished synthetic liquid oils having surface activity.
