Abstract:
Cycloalkyl nitrate compounds and tetrahydrofurfuyl nitrate could be synthesized by nitration of cycloalkyl alcohols such as cyclohexylmethanol, 2-cyclohexylethanol, 1, 4-cyclohexanedimethanol and tetrahydrofurfurly alcohol in the presence of concentrated nitric acid and concentrated sulfuric acid with dichloromethane as a solvent. The nitrate compounds obtained were indentified by spectroscopic techniques, such as Infrared Spectroscopy and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy. The nitrate compounds could be easily blended with base diesel fuel. They were effective in increasing cetane index to 4.0 units and 6.4 units at the concentration of 0.05% and 0.10% wt., respectively. It was found that these nitrate compounds gave higher cetane improvement than those of base diesel fuel and the commercial 2-ethylhexyl nitrate. Especially, tetrahydrofurfurly nitrate gave the highest cetane improvement. These nitrate compounds had potential to be used to improve cetane number of base diesel fuel more than the commercial cetane improver.