3. Results and discussion
Peroxides are the expected intermediate products which play a pivotal role in the oxidation and ignition of linseed oil. Peroxide compounds are highly reactive and unstable due to the relatively weak bond between two oxygen atoms, therefore they tend to decompose violently, particularly in the presence of catalysts [30]. Peroxide and iodine-value analyses probe the chemical changes occurring in linseed oil during oxidation. We performed experiments in the batch reactor to monitor the variation of the peroxide value during oxidation of linseed oil. Fig. 1(a) illustrates that peroxides increased and a maximum concentration of about 500 mmol kg−1 oil was reached after 5 h oxidation of linseed oil at 100 °C. On the other hand, the maximum peroxide value of about 140 mmol kg−1, which is 3.5 times lower, was achieved 5 times faster in the presence of cobalt (II) nitrate compared to the uncatalysed system. For the manganese (II) nitrate catalyst, the system attains the maximum value of peroxides of 268 mmol kg−1 in 4 h. This observation supports the results reported in literature that transition metal salts catalyse the decomposition of peroxide compounds produced during oxidation. Oyman et al. reported that at room temperature the peroxide amount increases significantly to the maximum level of about 150 mmol kg−1 oil, reached in 25 h, followed by the sharp decrease to 70 mmol kg−1 and a final slow decrease, during oxidation of linseed oil catalysed by cobalt (II) 2-ethylhexanoate [28]. In contrast, Fig. 1(b) demonstrates that the maximum production of propionaldehyde in the present experiments involving cobalt and manganese catalysts exceeded those of the uncatalysed system by 2.7 and 2.2 times, respectively. This suggests that there might be a relationship in the reaction pathway between decomposition of peroxide and formation of propionaldehyde.