Stability and physicochemical properties of MoO₃ dispersed Gossypium arboretum biodiesel

Abstract

This research focuses on the stability and physicochemical properties of Molybdenum Trioxide (MoO₃) nanoparticles in Gossypium arboretum biodiesel at 20% volumetric proportion (BD). MoO₃ nano additives were mixed with BD20 at 60, 80 and 100 ppm concentrations with and without surfactant Cetyltrimethylammonium Bromide (CTAB) at 1:1 concentration. The stability of nano-fuels was checked on three different days – day 1, day 10 and day 20 with a spectrophotometer that analyses the absorbance and transmittance of the samples. Compared to base nano fuels CTAB mixed nano samples showed good stability and improved crucial fuel properties. The fuel BDMoO₃CTAB80 (BD20 + MoO₃ 80 ppm + CTAB 80 ppm) discerned higher absorbance of 4.3 AU and lower transmittance of 88.3%. BDMoO₃CTAB80 recorded a higher value of cetane number of 64 and a heating value of 41,238 kJ/kg. Physicochemical properties such as Kinematic Viscosity and Relative Density recorded lower values of 4.23 cSt and 880 kg/m³.

Highlights

• Examining the stability of MoO₃ nanoparticles in G. arboretum biodiesel blends.

• G. arboretum biodiesel is produced by transesterification and nano fuel preparation was done by bath and probe sonication

• Fuel properties such as viscosity is reduced and cetane number was improved.

• BD20MoO₃80CTAB80 blend is the recommended nanofuel for using in compression ignition engines.

KEYWORDS:

• Molybdenum trioxide nanoparticle
• biodiesel
• stability
• cetane number
• transesterification

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).