The isolation and characterization of the polymers formed during the thermal oxidation of corn oil

Summary It has been shown that thermal oxidation of corn oil at 200°C. caused the formation of polymeric material. A combination of urea fractionation and molecular distillation was employed to concentrate the polymeric material. Further fractionation of the polymer concentrates was performed with the aid of solvent‐extraction procedures. These procedures resulted in the isolation of several polymer fractions with molecular weights ranging from 692 to 1,600. Analyses of the fractions indicated that they were of high oxygen content and that they contained unsaturation, difficult to remove by hydrogenation. The oxygen present in the fractions was shown to be in the form of hydroxyl and carboxyl groups. The polymeric materials could be linked together in a noncyclic structure.