Research-backed articles on cast iron seasoning I've always seasoned my cast iron pans with vegetable oil because that was what I was taught. I'd done some research before, and even came across this StackExchange post on asking the best oil for the job.
To my dismay however, when I tried doing some research myself, all sources pointed to blog posts, particularly the Sheryl Canter one. There is not a single source on her post and she doesn't seem to be very near a materials scientist. The closest paper I could find to the topic was this one. Other than that, it was all anecdotal evidence, many people claiming many different things.
It felt almost absurd that I couldn't find a paper on something that seemed relatively common to me. This will bug me till the end of time unless I figure it out, so I need to know - does anybody have any real sources on cast iron seasoning or what factors play a part in the polymerization of different oils? Thanks in advance.
There is this research on Chinese equivalent of seasoning process called &quot;Kitchen God's Blessing&quot; [1].
They argue that the non-stick property of seasoning comes by iron oxide $(\ce{Fe3O4})$ nanoballs.
If they are correct then the oil or its polymers is not exactly what is causing the non-stick property but the those nanoballs on the surface. Their seasoning method is somewhat different however. It uses temperatures up to 450 °C.
Reference

Gao, C.; Yang, N.; Li, C.; Wang, X.; Yu, X.; Zhang, L.; Wei, Z. Seasoning Chinese Cooking Pans: The Nanoscience behind the Kitchen God’s Blessing. Nano Materials Science 2020. DOI: 10.1016/j.nanoms.2020.06.001.