3.1. Physicochemical Characterization
The physicochemical properties of the synthesized samples (BL1 and BL2) are shown in
Table 2.
The density at 20 °C values did not change significantly, which implies minor modifications in the mass/volume ratio of the samples. On the other hand, the kinematic viscosity of the samples showed notable changes. Kinematic viscosity has a close relationship with intermolecular interactions. In other words, samples with a high number of hydrogen bonds are more resistant to flow [
1,
20,
42]. The viscosity index of BL1 showed the highest value, indicating a lowest variation in viscosity at different temperatures [
19]. In addition, the pour point is another physicochemical property that shows a notable result. The BL2 sample showed the lowest pour point value, this result may be explained by the length of the branched carbon chain, since as carbon chain length increases, lower is the pour point value [
1].
Beyond the fact that a decrease in the acidity means less risk of surface corrosion, the acid value is an important property to confirm the esterification reaction since the acid value decreased from 116.56 mg KOH/g in COFA to 9.58 mg KOH/g in BL1. Indeed, some authors reported the use of acid value to determine the conversion of the esterification reaction [
20,
23,
38]. For sample after epoxidation and oxirane rings reactions, the acid value of BL2 sample was lower, indicating that the reaction steps favor to improve this property.
3.2. Chemical Characterization
The FTIR spectra of all samples are shown in
Figure 3. In all samples, sharp bands may be observed at 2924 cm
-1 and 2854 cm
-1, corresponding respectively to the stretching vibrations of -CH
3 and -CH
2- [
31]. The band at 1710 cm
-1 in the COFA sample is attributed to the carbonyl group (C=O) in long-chain fatty acids [
8]. After esterification, this peak shifts to approximately 1741 cm
-1, corresponding to the stretching vibration of the carbonyl ester bond, confirming the formation of the ester structure in BL1 [
43,
44,
45]. Additionally, it is possible to observe the C-O stretching vibration at 1175 cm
-1 in the BL1 sample, which was not present in COFA [
46].
COFA and BL1 samples have peaks at 3007 cm
-1 related to the band corresponding to the =CH stretch [
42]. The absence of this peak in the epoxidized sample indicates the elimination of the double bond through the epoxidation reaction. Additionally, when comparing the epoxidized and the BL2 samples, it is observed that the peaks at 825 cm
-1 and 840 cm
-1, which are associated with the formation of epoxy groups, disappear, confirming the oxirane ring opening reaction. In the BL2 sample, there is a peak at 1737 cm
-1 corresponding to carbonyl elongation (C=O), and the peaks at 1174 cm
-1 and 1246 cm
-1 are related to the stretching vibration in the C-O band in ester [
47,
48].
The results obtained in the FTIR spectra demonstrate the success of the chemical modifications performed, which is corroborated by the ¹H NMR spectra shown in
Figure 4. In the COFA sample, the peak (I) is attributed to the double bonds present in its chemical structure [
49], while the peak (II) corresponds to the hydrogen atoms of the methyl group [
50]. The peaks (III) and (IV) indicate the hydrogen atoms attached to the sp³ carbon (–CH
2–) [
50,
51].
As for the BL1 sample, the appearance of the peak (V), associated with the hydrogen atom attached to the carbon close to the sp³ oxygen of the ester functional group (RCOOR’), confirms the esterification reaction [
8,
52]. In the epoxidized sample, the absence of the peak (VI), related to the double bonds, and the appearance of the peak (VII), characteristic of the formation of the epoxy ring, indicate the success of the epoxidation reaction [
53,
54]. Likewise, the absence of peak (VII) in sample BL2 and the presence of peak (VIII), corresponding to hydrogen atoms bonded to the hydroxyl carbon [
38,
54], confirm the reaction of ring opening epoxy.
3.3. Thermal-Oxidative Stability
The oxidative stability time for each sample, measured in hours and using a criterion of reaching a conductivity of 200 µS/cm, was 12.89±0.57 hours for BL1 and 14.29±0.16 hours for BL2. The improvement in the stability of BL2 compared to BL1 may be attributed to the removal of unsaturation through the epoxidation reaction, as well as to the increased degree of branching in the chemical structure of BL2 through the opening of oxirane rings, as previously reported [
55,
56,
57]. This improvement in the stability of the final product through chemical modifications makes its application more viable, considering that one of the main limitations in the direct use of vegetable oils as bio-based lubricants is their low oxidative stability [
38,
58].
Thermogravimetric (TG) and derivative thermogravimetric (DTG) curves in inert and oxidative atmospheres were used to evaluate the thermal stability of the COFA, BL1, and BL2 samples. The TG (a) and DTG (b) curves of the samples in inert atmosphere are presented in
Figure 5. The profiles of the curves for all samples exhibited similar trends, composed of more than one event, indicating that analogous thermal mechanisms are involved in the degradation processes.
Establishing the temperature at which the samples exhibit a 5% loss in their mass as the onset temperature of thermal decomposition (T
onset) [
43], the values for the COFA, BL1, and BL2 samples were 229.30 °C, 219.27 °C, and 195.03 °C, respectively. The decrease in the initial temperature of BL1 and BL2 may be attributed to residual solvent/alcohol, which could not be fully removed during distillation [
59]. Nevertheless, all samples exhibited T
onset values above or very close to 200 °C, indicating good thermal stability [
26].
According to the DTG of the COFA sample, the most significant thermal event occurs between 230 °C and 300 °C and is associated with the decomposition of the fatty acids, consistent with the usually reported range of 150 to 350 °C [
42,
44]. The initial mass loss observed in BL2 at temperatures below 200 °C was attributed to volatile components present in the sample [
26]. In the BL1 and BL2 samples, the main thermal events observed between 250 and 450 °C are attributed to the evaporation and decomposition of hydrocarbons as previously reported [
34]. The second-largest thermal event observed in BL2, around 480 to 525 °C, may suggest the onset of the combustion phenomenon, as previously reported in Bezerra
et al. [
48], for a babassu oil biolubricant sample in the temperature range of 330 °C to 550 °C.
The temperatures associated with 10%, 20%, 50% and 90% mass loss of the samples are described in
Table 3. Comparing samples BL1 and BL2, it is possible to observe that BL2 exhibits greater thermal stability, which can be explained due to its chemical structure containing more hydroxyl groups and a higher degree of branching compared to BL1, as reported in previous studies [
11,
60]. When comparing BL2 with other samples under identical conditions (50% mass loss), it was observed that its result slightly exceeded the value reported in a previous study [
58], for the trimethylolpropane ester of Karanja oil
(Millettia pinnata), which recorded 312.53 °C. BL2 also exhibited a temperature higher than that of the 14 biolubricant samples derived from amino acid-based ionic liquids studied by Zhu
et al. [
61], which ranged between 174.8 °C and 236.1 °C. However, BL2 exhibited a lower temperature than that reported in the study by Jiang
et al. [
62] for the 5W-40 motor oil and the ionic liquid (1-vinyl-3-ethylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate), which for a 50% decomposition reached 359 °C and 402 °C, respectively.
The TG (a) and DTG (b) curves of the samples in an oxidative atmosphere are shown in
Figure 6, in which the DTG results corroborate the observations of the TG curves. Similarly, to DTG in an inert atmosphere, it is possible to observe multiple thermal events in all samples, indicating the presence of different thermo-oxidative processes involved.
Using the same criterion that T
onset is the temperature at which the sample exhibits a 5% mass loss, the values for the COFA, BL1, and BL2 samples were 236.14 °C, 223.72 °C, and 187.62 °C, respectively. It may be seen that samples COFA and BL1 exhibited high thermal stability up to 200 °C, while BL2 remained thermally stable up to around 190 °C. The mass losses observed in all samples between approximately 200-350 °C are associated with the degradation of ester bonds or double bonds present in their chemical structures, while mass losses above 350 °C suggest the complete degradation of previously generated oxidized fragments [
63].
The temperatures at which the samples lose 10%, 20%, 50%, and 90% of their mass in atmosphere oxidative are reported in
Table 4. Based on the results, there is an improvement in the stability of the BL2 sample if compared to BL1. This suggests that the chemical modifications, such as epoxidation to remove unsaturation, improve thermal stability and maintain lubricity at high temperatures [
64,
65,
66]. When comparing BL2 with other samples under identical conditions (50% mass loss), it was observed that the BL2 result surpassed the value of 281.3 °C reported by Ferreira et al. [
67] for
Pequi (Caryocar brasiliensis) oil ester with 2-ethylhexanol catalyzed by PTSA (the same catalyst in this study). However, the BL2 sample showed a lower temperature than that recorded for the
Pequi oil ester with pentaerythritol produced in the same study [
67], using PTSA as catalyst, which reached 437.9 °C.
3.5. Tribological Results
The friction coefficients (FC) and wear scar diameters (WSD) results obtained in the tribological tests for the samples of bio-based lubricants obtained and MOS are shown in
Figure 7.
BL1 and BL2 exhibited lower friction coefficients and WSD than MOS throughout the tribological test. The presence of the polar region characterized by functional groups in the bio-based lubricant molecules enhances the adhesion to the spheres, and for this reason, the biologically sourced samples show lower FC when compared to MOS, which is predominantly a non-polar molecule [
8,
26]. However, the friction curve of BL1 (Fig. 7a) fluctuated throughout the test, indicating a type D friction trace behavior, where the lubricant is less efficient in resisting shear forces and, consequently, less ability to reduce wear between samples of biolubricants [
68,
69,
70]. Other reported studies [
8,
71] obtained equivalent results for bio-based lubricants synthesized via esterification reaction using 2-ethylhexanol. This lower wear reduction efficiency in BL1 can be explained by the fact that the esterification reaction converted the carboxylic functional group into an alcohol group.
Among the functional groups present in biolubricants, carboxylic acid is the strongest polar group, which generates strong adhesion to the metallic surface of the spheres and excellent anti-wear properties. Therefore, the substitution of carboxylic acid with the alcohol group reduced the polarity and anti-wear efficiency of the BL1 molecule [
11,
72,
73]. The BL2 sample exhibited the lowest FC (Fig. 7a and 7b) among all the samples studied and an equivalent WSD (Fig. 7c) to COFA. This behavior suggests that the introduction of ether-type branches (two hydroxyl functional groups and one alcohol group) improved the adhesion of the polar region to the metallic surface of the spheres while maintaining good anti-wear capacity due to strong intermolecular interactions induced by hydrogen bonding [
11,
74,
75].
The morphologies of the worn surfaces are presented in
Table 5. It is possible to observe aspects related to abrasion and adhesion wear, characterized by grooves in the direction of application [
26,
76,
77,
78].
The bio-based samples exhibit smoother surface aspects when compared to the MOS lubricated surface, which appears rougher. This is because surfaces lubricated with bio-based lubricants form a monomolecular or multimolecular structure that aligns with the polar end, inhibiting metal-to-metal contact between the balls. As a result, the surfaces exhibit smoother aspects with less pronounced grooves compared to those observed in MOS [
26,
77,
79].