Im a bit stumped. Do we know why in a chemistry point of view as to the solubility differences between potassium stearate and calcium stearate?
Calcium sterate is insoluble in water whereas potassium stearate is soluble (as claimed by MSDSs).
I would have thought - that due to both structures containing long hydrophobic stearic acid groupings, both should have been insoluble!
could the answer be that calcium stearate has 2 stearic acid groups whereas potassium has only 1? then again, stearic acid alone is insoluble in
water.
Can anybody offer an explanation???
Thank you guys Paddywhacker - 1-11-2012 at 19:03
With ten posts to your credit you should know by now that the organic chemistry forum is not the place for this query. The short questions thread
might be more appropriate.
But the short answer is that there are no systematic rules for solubility. A non-systematic observation would be the number of insoluble potassium
salts vs the number of insoluble calcium ones.watson.fawkes - 1-11-2012 at 20:35
