Date of Award

12-1996

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Chemistry

First Advisor

Dr. James A. Howell

Second Advisor

Dr. Michael E. McCarville

Third Advisor

Dr. Ralph Steinhaus

Access Setting

Masters Thesis-Open Access

Abstract

There is a great deal of interest by the public about the total unsaturation of fats and oils used in commercial products as an indication of nutritional value. Dealers in fats and oils are extremely interested in characterizing these products. The unsaturation is a guide to the expected stability of food additives, such as edible oils and foods in which they are used. Unsaturation is typically evaluated as an iodine number (IN), calculated for these additives based on their consumption of iodine through addition across the carbon-carbon double bonds. The classical titration method can typically take 45 minutes.

The investigation presented develops an alternative method for determining iodine numbers of chosen common oils using an infrared spectrophotometer. The quantitation technique employed involves a first derivative of infrared (IR) spectra. Results of the analytical data give iodine numbers with about a 5% relative standard deviation. The IN values from the newly developed IR method are compared with results from proton-NMR and with the AOCS standard techniques such as: gas chromatography and titration.

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