Waste Cooking Oil-Based Novel Gemini Imidazolinium Surfactants With Carbonate Linkage: Green Synthesis, Characterization and Properties Evaluation

Imidazolinium surfactants belong to the category of cationic surfactants that have already gained the great interest of researchers due to their varied range of commercial applications. With the advancement in the field of surfactants research, imidazolinium surfactants are being converted into their corresponding gemini surfactants. Gemini surfactants are known to have exceptional self-assembling characteristics and exclusive interfacial activity that include much lower CMC and better ability to reduce surface tension than their conventional monomeric counterparts. Long reaction time associated with conventional thermal synthetic procedures and high production costs are the two major issues involved in the synthesis of gemini surfactants. The present research work involves the microwave synthesis of novel gemini imidazolinium surfactants with carbonate linkage. In order to synthesize cost effective gemini surfactants, waste cooking oils have been used as raw materials. Structural characterization of synthesized gemini surfactants has been achieved through H-1-NMR, C-13-NMR and FT-IR.