How to fix colouration during polyglycerol synthesis?
Hello. I am trying to make transparent polyglycerol with minimal free glycerol in it. I am an industrial chemist.
I am running a base-catalyzed polyetherification. I have 3% w/w NaOH cooking with free glycerol under a nitrogen sparge and blanket at 240C. The Dean
\-Stark apparatus collects the water of polymerization separately.
The solution is amber in colour after about 8h. On neutralisation with sulphuric acid, the colour is lightened but it’s very much there. Filtering the material with a 10-micron cloth is also quite difficult because the material is quite viscous.
Bleach the solution with hydrogen peroxide results in a lot of foaming. It helps colour but the solution is clearly a pale yellow.
My BIG question is this: how do I save the colour of polyglycerol? Are there methods I don’t know that can keep the solution clear?
My smaller question is this: how do I filter the solids out of a viscous fluid efficiently?
I would hugely appreciate the insight of someone with some experience with this. AI dump doesn’t help any in lab.