Differences between PE wax, paraffin wax, protective wax, and microcrystalline wax

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Many people may not have heard of the term \"vaseline,\" but the vast majority have used products made from it. In the pharmaceutical industry, it is used as a raw material for preparing various medicinal ointments and cleansing oils ； In terms of makeup, it is also an important ingredient in hair waxes, balms, moisturizers, and sunscreens to prevent chapping. The scientific name for Vaseline is petrolatum; its main ingredient is a waxy substance obtained from the residue left after atmospheric and vacuum distillation of crude oil, and it also requires the addition of various amounts of lubricants with high or medium viscosity as specified. The yellow wax paste obtained from petroleum residue contains many impurities. Whether it is for medicinal or cosmetic use, it must not contain any substances harmful to the human body, nor should it have an unpleasant odor; therefore, it requires further purification to have all such impurities removed before it can be used. Depending on their intended uses, they can be divided into ordinary petrolatum, pharmaceutical petrolatum, cosmetic petrolatum, industrial petrolatum, and capacitor petrolatum, among others. It can be seen that Vaseline is a mixture of waxes and oils, but it should be noted that the waxes contained in it are mainly microcrystalline waxes. People are quite familiar with paraffin, but less so with the term microcrystalline wax. Microcrystalline wax, like paraffin wax, is derived from petroleum; the difference is that paraffin wax comes from the fractions obtained through petroleum distillation, while microcrystalline wax is separated from the residue left after petroleum distillation. Microcrystalline wax was originally called earth wax, as people mined natural earth wax deposits more than half a century ago; unfortunately, this resource has now been depleted. It is called microcrystalline wax because, under a microscope, its crystals can be clearly seen to be much smaller than those of paraffin wax. The crystalline form of paraffin is generally large flakes, whereas microcrystalline wax consists of smaller needle-like or granular crystals. This results in a significant difference in their properties; paraffin is brittle and tends to break or even shatter easily when subjected to stress ； Microcrystalline wax has low hardness and good flexibility; it deforms easily when subjected to force and is not prone to breaking. They are all called waxes; why is there such a big difference in their crystal structures and properties? Ultimately, this is because their chemical composition and structure are different. The main components of paraffin are long, unbranched alkanes, whereas the main components of microcrystalline wax are cycloalkanes and aromatics with higher molecular weights and longer carbon chains.