Sodium palmitate crystallization

For sodium palmitate, 5-phase is the thermodynamically preferred, or equiUbrium state, at room temperature and up to - 60° C P-phase contains a higher level of hydration and forms at higher temperatures and CO-phase is an anhydrous crystal that forms at temperatures comparable to P-phase. Most soap in the soHd state exists in one or a combination of these three phases. The phase diagram refers to equiUbrium states. In practice, the drying routes and other mechanical manipulation utilized in the formation of soHd soap can result in the formation of nonequilibrium phase stmcture. This point is important when dealing with the manufacturing of soap bars and their performance. 

Palmitic acid is present as cetyl ester in spermaceti from which, by hydrolysis, the acid may be obtained it is present in bee s wax as the mehssic ester and in most vegetable and animal oils and fats, in greater or lesser amounts, as glyceryl tripalmitate or as mixed esters, along with stearic and oleic adds, Palmitic acid is separated from stearic and oleic acids by fractional vacuum distillation and by fractional crystallization. With NaOH, palmitic add forms sodium palmitate, a soap, Most soaps are mixtures of sodium stearate, palmitate, and oleate. 

Mixtures of fatty acid salts are used as soaps. Sodium palmitate—stearate mixtures are solid at room temperature, and the corresponding potassium salt mixtures are fluid, although only potassium palmitate has been crystallized at room temperature. Metal carboxylates hydrolyze in water and release hydroxyl ions on the skin s surface. Soaps with fewer than 12 carbon atoms therefore bite. This happens with nonpurified soaps as obtained from fats containing fractions. Longer alkyl chains produce soft soaps, since they are not soluble as monomers in water and the surface liquids of the skin (sebum, sweat). Sulfonates, on the other hand, do not show such differences because they are always present as fully dissociated salts at physiological pH values and produce no hydroxyl ions. Allergic reactions to commercial soaps are mostly not caused by the fatty acids but by additives, such as perfumes. 

Since saturated fatty acids are insoluble in bile acid solutions, and since saturated fatty acid soaps are only soluble in terms of the mole fraction of a soap-bile acid mixture having a critical micellar temperature of 37° C, one would anticipate saturated fatty acid-soap mixtures to have negligible solubility in bile acid solutions. Some years ago, we compared the behavior of sodium, palmitate, and stearate at pH 5.8, 6.2, 6.6, and 7.0 in buffer or buffer containing bile acid. In the absence of bile acid, the saturated fatty acids remained as unwetted crystals. When bile acid was added, the solubility increased measurably but only very slightly. 

Binary Soap-Water System Mixtures of soap in water exhibit a rich variety of phase structures (4, 5). Phase diagrams chart the phase structures, or simply phases, as a function of temperature (on the y-axis) and concentration (on the x-axis). Figure 2.1 shows a typical soap-water binary phase diagram, in this case for sodium pahnitate-water. Sodium palmitate is a fully saturated, 16-carbon chain-length soap. At lower temperatures, soap crystals coexist with a dilute isotropic soap solution. Upon heating, the solubility of soap increases in water. As the temperature is increased the soap becomes soluble enough to form micelles this point is named the Krafft point. The temperature boundary at different soap concentrations above which micelles or hquid crystalline phases form is named the Krafft boundary (5). 

Fujiwara et al. studied the precipitation phase boundary diagrams of the sodium salts of a-sulfonated myristic and palmitic acid methyl esters in the presence of calcium ions [61]. The time dependency of the precipitation showed that the calcium salts have an extremely slow crystallization rate at room temperatures. This is the reason for the good hardness tolerance of the a-sulfonated fatty acid methyl esters. 

Oleic acid may be obtained from glycerol trioleate, present in many liquid vegetable and animal nondrying oils, such as olive, cottonseed, lard, by hydrolysis. The crude oleic acid after separation of the water solution of glycerol is cooled to fractionally crystallize the stearic and palmitic acids, which are then separated by filtration, and fractional distillation under diminished pressure. Oleic acid reacts with lead oxide to form lead oleate, which is soluble in ether, whereas lead stearate or palmitaie is insoluble, prom lead oleate oleic add may be obtained by treatment with IL 5 (lead sulfide, insoluble solid, formed). With sodium oleate, a soap is formed. Most soaps are mixtures of sodium stearate, palmitate. and oleate. 

Crystal structures of L-ascorbic acid varying from coarse to ultrafine powder constitute the major commercial product forms of the compound, followed by special coated and granulated forms. Sodium L-ascorbate is also produced in granular and powder forms. Limited production of other forms such as calcium ascorbate and ascorbyl palmitate depend on demand of these products in specialty use applications. 

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