A new type of rigid polyurethane foam was produced by incorporating oxazolidone heterocyclic rings on to polyurethane backbones. Epoxidized diethanolamides were synthesized by reacting palm oil blends of epoxidized palm olein and refined bleached deodorized palm kernel olein with diethanolamine to produce rigid polyurethane foams. Epoxides, retained in the diethanolamides, reacted with isocyanate during foam production in the presence of AlCl 3 -THF complex catalyst to form oxazolidone linkages in the polyurethane network. The carbonyl stretch of oxazolidone was identified at 1,750 cm -1 through Fourier Transform Infra Red analysis. Chemical modifications of the polyurethane network also improved the thermal and mechanical properties of the foams. In addition, isocyanate index 1.4 was determined to be the most suitable in the production of foams from this newly synthesized epoxidized diethanolamides.

In this work, Epoxidized Palm Olein (EPO o ) was blended with Refined Bleached Deodorized Palm Kernel Olein (RBDPKO o ) in a range of 10-100% (w/w) to react with diethanolamine (DEA) with a 1:3 molar ratio to produce diethanolamides that retained some epoxides. The epoxidized diethanolamides are proposed as a new type of vegetable oil derived polyols for rigid polyurethane. The optimal reaction temperature is 110°C for 5 h. In addition, the optimal amount of starting materials were determined to be 40% (w/w) of EPO o blended with 60% (w/w) of RBDPKO o . The diethanolamides appeared as non-viscous liquid at room temperature with a viscosity of 990.08 cP at 25°C and 427.09 cP at 40°C, a cloud point of 21°C, a pour point of 12°C and 0.78% of retained oxirane oxygen contents (OOC). The hydroxyl and the amine values of the diethanolamides were determined as 351.85 mg KOH/g sample and 4.5 mg KOH/g sample, respectively. In addition, chemical elucidation of the diethanolamides with functional epoxides was carried out using Gas Chromatography (GC) and Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (GCMS) for the purpose of process development and quality control.

In this work, a regression model obtained from response surface methodology (RSM) was proposed for the electrocoagulation (EC) treatment of textile wastewater. The Reactive Black 5 dye (RB5) was used as a model dye to evaluate the performance of the model design. The effect of initial solution pH, applied current and treatment time on RB5 removal was investigated. The total number of experiments designed by RSM amounted to 27 runs, including three repeated experimental runs at the central point. The accuracy of the model was evaluated by the F-test, coefficient of determination (R), adjusted R and standard deviation. The optimum conditions for RB5 removal were as follows: initial pH of 6.63, current of 0.075 A, electrolyte dose of 0.11 g/L and EC time of 50.3 min. The predicted RB5 removal was 83.3% and the percentage error between experimental and predicted results was only 3-5%. The obtained data confirm that the proposed model can be used for accurate prediction of RB5 removal. The value of the zeta potential increased with treatment time, and the X-ray diffraction pattern shows that iron complexes were found in the sludge.