Heat capacities and thermal diffusivities of n-alkane acid ethyl esters—biodiesel fuel components

Abstract

The heat capacities and thermal diffusivities of ethyl esters of liquid n-alkane acids C_nH_2n–1O₂C₂H₅ with the number of carbon atoms in the parent acid n = 10, 11, 12, 14, and 16 are measured. The heat capacities are measured using a DSC 204 F1 Phoenix heat flux differential scanning calorimeter (Netzsch, Germany) in the temperature range of 305–375 K. Thermal diffusivities are measured by means of laser flash method on an LFA-457 instrument (Netzsch, Germany) at temperatures of 305–400 K. An equation is derived for the dependence of the molar heat capacities of the investigated esters on temperature. It is shown that the dependence of molar heat capacity C_p,m(298.15 K) on n (n = 1–6) is close to linear. The dependence of thermal diffusivity on temperature in the investigated temperature range is described by a first-degree polynomial, but thermal diffusivity a (298.15 K) as a function of n has a minimum at n = 5.