Growing awareness of the negative environmental impacts of synthetic surfactants and their limited biodegradability require the search for sustainable and environmentally acceptable alternatives. In this context, sucrose esters represent a promising class of green surfactants due to their renewable nature, biodegradability and low toxicity profile. In this work, the synthesis of sucrose derivatives was investigated using sucrose and a mixture of methyl esters of fatty acids (biodiesel), with the use of potassium carbonate as an effective catalyst. The reactions were carried out in the presence of methanol or N,N-dimethylformamide as a solvent, with the aim of examining the influence of reaction conditions on the formation of products. The FTIR technique was used in combination with the appropriate physico-chemical analysis to characterize the obtained synthesis products. The obtained results indicate a significant influence of the choice of solvent on the character of the product, while the use of biodiesel and sucrose as reactants and potassium carbonate as a catalyst provides a perspective for the development of new environmentally friendly surfactants as a promising alternative to synthetic surfactants.
Borković et al. (Wed,) studied this question.