Preparation and analysis of melamine and melamine-silica as clarifying agents of waste lubricating oil

Melamine is a key compound used as a clarifying agent for waste lubricating oil primarily due to its excellent adsorbent properties. Moreover, considerable interest exists for the further modification of melamine in order to provide a remediation agent with improved clarification capacity. In this study, hexamethylolmelamine was prepared using a solution of formaldehyde, which provided an agent capable of incorporation into a silicate polymer framework. Subsequently, the resultant monomer was added to a solution of silicate to produce the melamine-silica polymer. The melamine and melamine-silica polymer were characterized using the techniques of XRD, FTIR, SSA and thermal analysis to confirm structural and morphological characteristics. These characterizations indicated that the increase in the surface area of the 0.315 m(2)/g to melamine to 26.71 m(2)/g of melamine-silica suggests the effective introduction of silanols groups to hexamethylolmelamine and, therefore, corresponds to the high performance in relation to melamine as clarifying of waste lubricant oil.