Synthesis and Evaluation of Some Polymers as Lubricating Oil Additives

Lubricating oil contain always different types of additives. Viscosity is one of the most important and visible property of a fluid. Modern lubricants, especially motors oils, contain polymeric additives that modify the viscosity characteristics of the lubricants. These additives are called viscositymodifiers or viscosity index improvers. The dewaxing process is used to lower the pour point of the oil. In the present work, some polymeric additives were prepared via copolymerization of different alpha-olefins with different esters of acrylic acid and used as pour point depressants and viscosity index improvers for lubricating oil. The efficiencies of the prepared compounds as pour point depressants and viscosity index improvers were investigated. It was found that the efficiency of the prepared compounds as pour point depressants increases with decreasing the concentration of the prepared polymers, increasing the chain length of alkyl groups and with decreasing the molecular weight of the prepared polymers. The efficiency of the prepared compounds as viscosity index improvers increases by increasing the concentration of these additives and by increasing the molecular weight of polymers.