Influence of the nature of organic solvents on the process of separation of antioxidative additive in a transformer oil by a gas-chromatographic method
Authors: Nguyen Duy Hung , Snigireva Yu. V. , Taneeva A. V. , Novikov V. F. 
Published: March 2021

THE PURPUSE. The paper considers the influence of the nature of organic solvents on the process of separation of an antioxidant additive added to transformer oil at a concentration of up to 0.40% by weight, and organic solvents used as selective extractants. Based on the analysis of literature data, it is shown that mineral transformer oil is a complex hydrocarbon composition that undergoes oxidative degradation during operation, leading to aging of transformer oil and deterioration of technical conditions of operation of transformer electrical equipment. As a result of this process, peroxide compounds appear in transformer oil, which affect its color, oxidation stability, aging resistance, compatibility with structural parts of equipment, etc. Gas -liquid chromatography was used to determine the "Ionol" antioxidant additive and organic extractants in transformer oil. Experiments were performed on a chromatograph of Chromosomes GC -1000 with a flame ionization detector and a quartz capillary column 30 m long, 0.32 mm in diamet er, filled with a fixed liquid phase Valko Bond VB-WAX P/n with a film thickness of 0.5 microns. The sample was dosed into the gas-liquid chromatograph injector using an automatic liquid dispenser DAZH-23, designed for entering up to twenty-three samples of sorbates and controlled by a computer with the appropriate software.

METHODS. Aliphatic alcohols from C1 to C5 were studied as extractants of the antioxidant additive, which are well separated from the ionol both under isothermal conditions and in the mode of linear programming of the column temperature from 40 to 220 °C. Under these conditions the chromatogram of the separation of antioxidant additives, and aliphatic alcohols, which are used to calculate their relative retained volumes, the asymmetry of chromatographic peaks and the column efficiency, which depends on the physico -chemical nature of the solutes to be analyzed and the conditions of the chromatographic experiment.

RESULTS. The dependence of the relative volume of retention of aliphatic alcohols on their permittivity, which has a nonlinear form, is established. At the same time, with a decrease in the chain length of alkyl substituents in the aliphatic alcohol molecule, there is a tendency to increase their permittivity. The dependence of the relative retained volume of aliphatic alcohols on the selectivity coefficient of separation with Ionol is linear. In this case, the most optimal separation selectivity, approaching one, is characteristic of the Ionol – Butanol-1 pair. It is shown that the dependence of the logarithm of the retention time of aliphatic alcohols on their boiling points is linear both at a low temperature of the chromatographic column (40 °C) and at a higher temperature (more than 100 °C). CONCLUSION. At the same time, the angle of inclination of the corresponding lines changes in the boiling point of organic solvents, which is associated with a change in the sorption mechanism in a capillary chromatographic column filled with a polar stationary phase.