Studies on the refractive index and dispersion of American tung oil

Abstract

Conclusions Tung oil has a refractive index and a dispersion so far above those of any other common oil that both are valuable criteria for identification purposes. With proper equipment the dispersion, in addition to the refractive index, can be determined with little extra effort and would confirm the conclusions drawn from the refractive index. Mixtures of tung oil with another vegetable oil (except oiticica and other rare conjugated oils) can be analyzed to within 0.5% from the refractive index for either the sodium or the mercury line if the refractive indices of the separate oils are known. The mixtures can be analyzed from the dispersion to within about 1% of the correct composition if the dispersions of the separate oils are known. If the adulterating oil is not known the adulteration can be more closely estimated from the depression of the dispersion than from the depression of the refractive index. When tung oil is bodied by heat the refractive indices for the sodium and mercury lines and the dispersion fall rapidly and continuously to the point of gelation, but the changes are so similar that no worth‐while additional information is obtained by determining more than one refractive index. The fact that refractive index decreases as viscosity increases suggests the use of the refractive index in controlling the bodying of tung oil. Other things being equal, the refractive index for the mercury line should give more accurate information on tung oil than that for the sodium line because of the greater changes in the refractive index for the mercury line upon adulteration or heating. A correlation coefficient of 0.83 was found for refractive index with the diene number of tung oil. A lower correlation coefficient was found for refractive index with the iodine number, but the latter would probably be higher if a more accurate method for the determination of the iodine number of tung oil were available.