Recent Progress in Microwave-assisted Modification of Vegetable Oils or Their Derivatives

Vegetable oils have been widely used in food, surfactants, lubricants, biodiesel, coatings, and other fields due to their advantages such as renewable, abundant, suitable for further processing, and biodegradable. On the other hand, microwave technology has attracted extensive attention in organic and polymeric chemistry because the technology can greatly shorten the reaction time, improve the yield of products, reduce side reactions, etc. This paper summarized recent advances on the microwave-assisted modification of vegetable oils or their derivatives, such as esterification of free fatty acids, transesterification of triglycerides, epoxidation, and polymerization.