Abstract:
Studies have shown that there are problems of water capillary movement in buildings erected in water logged areas which negatively affect their life span. This research work was carried out to prepare and apply calcium carboxylates from Luffa cylindrica seed oil on concrete hydrophobicitywhich can be applied to protect walls of buildings against these effects.The seed of Luffa cylindrica was analyzed for their proximate composition, oil was extracted from the seed of Luffa cylindrica using hexane in a soxhlet extractor, analyzed for fatty acid composition and some physicochemical properties using standard methods. Calcium carboxylates was later produced from the oil by metathesis and the effect of metal carboxylates obtained from Luffa cylindrica oilwas tested on concrete’s hydrophobicity at different concrete formulations based on (0.0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8 and 1% w/w). Results show that L. cylindrica has moisture content of 8.01±0.09, crude protein 33.98±0.01, fiber 10.16±0.03, fat 19.97±0.08, carbohydrate 24.73±0.05 and ash 3.24±0.04.The results of the fatty acids composition showed that the oils contain significant quantity of unsaturated fatty acids (79.80%) compared with the saturated acids (20.20%) and Linoleic acid (50.10%) is the most predominant unsaturated fatty acids present.The physicochemical properties of the extracted oils of L. cylindricashowed saponification value of 206.08 KOH/g; iodine value 174.87 mgI2/g; acid value 0.73mg KOH/g. The results obtained showed that Luffa cylindrica seed flour and oils are of good important to man and industries. Water sorptivity test showed that 260.00g casted concretes of 0.8% concentration of metal carboxylates of Luffa cylindrica oil presented the best effects on concretes hydrophobicity showing a good resistance to permeability. At 40 minutes, the material stopped to absorb and transmit water by capillary. Also within 30 minutes, the absorption of water by capillary reached maximum at the length of 1.70mm compared to other concentrations
