Publications

Critical cleaning agents for Di-2-ethylhexyl sebacate

Hartley, Mya T.

It is required that Di-2-ethylhexyl Sebacate oil, also commonly known as Dioctyl Sebacate oil, be thoroughly removed from certain metals, in this case stainless steel parts with narrow, enclosed spaces. Dioctyl Sebacate oil is a synthetic oil with a low compressibility. As such, it is ideally used for high pressure calibrations. The current method to remove the Dioctyl Sebacate from stainless steel parts with narrow, enclosed spaces is a labor-intensive, multi-step process, including a detergent clean, a deionized (DI) water rinse, and several solvent rinses, to achieve a nonvolatile residue of 0.04 mg per 50 mL rinse effluent. This study was undertaken to determine a superior detergent/solvent cleaning method for the oil to reduce cleaning time and/or the amount of detergent/solvent used. It was determined that while some detergent clean the oil off the metal better than the current procedure, using only solvents obtained the best result. In addition, it can be inferred, based on elevated temperature test results, that raising the temperature of the oil-contaminated stainless steel parts to approximately 50ÀC will provide for improved cleaning efficacy.