2020 Alton E. Bailey Award Lecture

2020 Alton E. Bailey Award Lecture presented by Tong (Toni) Wang. The presentation will be livestreamed at https://annualmeeting.aocs.org/watch-the-livestream


Research and Development of Vegetable Oil Based Oleo-Compounds as Waxes

Natural waxes of plant and insect sources have advantages over petroleum based or synthesized polymeric waxes in many industrial and food packaging applications. To mimic natural wax in both structure and functional properties, a series of vegetable oil based waxes for coating are made and evaluated. This presentation highlights some of our work in this area. A more cohesive and softer wax compared to fully hydrogenated oil, EsterCoat, can be made from saturated fatty acids, and its application in paper coating and performance is demonstrated. A very hard and high-melting wax, AmideCoat, with the hardness of appearance as carnauba wax is made by amidation reaction with diacid, diamine, and cinnamic acid. Its application potentials are being evaluated in several industrial sectors. A high oleic soybean oil derived monohydroxy fatty acid derivative has shown to have desirable properties for fruit coating after it is formulated into a compound nanoemulsion. We have also hypothesized that to most effectively prevent moisture loss from citrus fruit, the chemical nature and crystallinity of the coating waxes, rather than their quantity play the most critical role. The 16, 22, and 26C series of hydrocarbon, alcohol, aldehyde, and acid are synthesized and their crystallinity and co-crystallization behaviors are studied. The moisture barrier property of these compounds is evaluated. These research and development examples demonstrate the possibilities of using vegetable oil-based oleo-compounds to replace petroleum and polymeric waxes for premier performance and environmental sustainability.