quote:
Originally posted by Drstressor:
I think you are asking a chemistry question that goes beyond what this board is about. If you go to a library and find a college level organic chemistry textbook that illustrates the structures, you should be able to learn what you want to know.
Basically, you start with ethylene gas (2C), which has the 2 carbon atoms held together by a double bond. Ethylene can be polymerized using a standard organic chemistry reaction into alpha-olefins, such as 1-octene (8C), 1-decene (10C), or 1-dodecene (12C). Alpha-olefins have a single double bond between the 1st and 2nd carbon atoms; all the rest of the carbon atoms are fully saturated with hydrogen. POA lubricants are generally produced by polymerizing a single size class of alpha-olefin, such as 1-decene, so that the final reaction products can be more carefully controlled. The polymerization reaction proceeds by addition of 1-decene units to the double bonded alpha carbon of other 1-decene units. The resulting product contains linear and branch chain hydrocarbons with unsaturated bonds at the terminal carbons. These are then saturated with hydrogen by a process known as hydro-finishing. The longer the hydrocarbon chains, the higher the viscosity of the finished product. The mass of the finished products are some multiple of the initial monomeric unit (i.e. C20, C30, C40 if you started with 1-decene).
Ester based lubricants are produced by polymerizing defined organic acids and alcohols using controlled oxidation reactions.
