Chromatographic Isolation and Characterization of beeswax hydrocarbons

Abstract

The objectives of this research were to isolate and characterize beeswax hydrocarbons. The physicochemical parameters of the bleached beeswax have shown that the sample contains ester constituents and unsaturated compounds. In addition, both peroxide and acid values were found to be zero. Silica gel column chromatography was used to fractionate the bleached beeswax components. Elution with n-hexane was carried out to separate the nonpolar constituents (fraction 1). Structural and thermal analyses were performed to characterize fraction 1. Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) has demonstrated the successful isolation of the hydrocarbons because of the presence of pure absorption peaks of hydrocarbons. Furthermore, high temperature gas chromatography (HT-GC/FID) has displayed that fraction 1 contains eleven different hydrocarbons. They are linear and saturated even and odd numbered hydrocarbons. They range between C23 to C50. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) revealed that fraction 1 (hydrocarbons) is crystalline in nature.