| abstract |
Mixtures of conjugated and non-conjugated unsaturated fatty acids, esters, alcohols, amines or amides including as the predominant component free or combined mixed positional and geometrical isomers of the conjugated compounds are heated with a reactive dienophile in an amount equivalent to the conjugated diene content of the mixture, in the presence of catalytic amounts of iodine and in the absence of U.V. light. The products are Diels-Alden adducts and dienophiles mentioned are maleic acid or anhydride, acrylonitrile, actylic acid, methyl acrylate, and acrolein and the conjugated materials may be dehydrated castor oil fatty acids, and isomerized unsaturated fatty products obtained by the catalytic isomerization of polyunsaturated oils. Solvents and polymerization inhibitors may be used and the products may be separated by distillation or solvent extraction. Examples describe the reaction of conjugated soya fatty acids with maleic anhydrides, conjugated tall oil methyl esters with acrylic acid, conjugated soya methyl esters with methyl acrylate, dehydrated castor oil fatty acids with maleic anhydride, and alkali isomerized sunflower methyl esters with maleic anhydride. The products may be used as plasticizers or intermediate therefor, for curing epoxy resins and for the preparation of alkyds. |