Preparation of Fat‐Liquor Based on Jojoba Oil Under Phase Transfer Catalysis

Jojoba oil is of immense importance for industrial applications. There are a lot of published articles concerning its various uses in cosmetics, detergents, surfactants and lubricants. Therefore, this work was devoted to exploring its application for further use in the leather industry as a fat‐liquoring agent. The fat‐liquoring process is one important step in leather manufacturing, with the intention of obtaining leather of full, soft handle, flexibility, and pliability as well as improving its mechanical properties. The study involved preparation of jojoba fat‐liquor via a sulfitation process. An improvement of the sulfitation process based on combined SO3 content was achieved under phase transfer catalysis (PTC). Two differently prepared types of phase transfer catalyst of phosphonium and ammonium types were investigated, namely, benzyl tri‐phenyl phosphonium chloride (BTPP) and tri‐ethyl benzyl ammonium chloride (TEBA). The fat‐liquored leather led to an improvement in its mechanical properties such as tensile strength and elongation at break. In addition, a significant enhancement of the texture of the treated leather by jojoba fat‐liquor as indicated in the scanning electron microscope (SEM) images was observed.