fritz
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aluminium-soaps
Has anyone ever tried to synthesize aluminium-salts of fatty acids (especially those of higher molecular-weigh)??
My own experiments failed (both reacting Al-sulfate with common `soap` and reacting Al-sulfate with homemade soap made of stearine (candles) and
NaOH)
I got both times a crumbly yellow-brownish mass wich seems to consist most of the original fatty acids. And it had a strange smell which was similar
to that of the curd-soap I used. I wonder if the pH of the Al-salt solution was too low (and so causing the anions of the fatty acids being protonated
and separating out of the mixture) but trying to raise it (with small amounts of lye) resulted in precipiating Al(OH)3.
I know that it is possible to produce Al-soaps this way beacause I read some informations about it some times ago. unfortunatelly only more general
informations without many details.
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Al Koholic
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Just out of curiosity, why do you want to make an aluminum soap? I would guess that it would be a liquid soap because the long chains are going to be
harder to line up attached to a trivalent aluminum cation. Also, would they have the cleaning power of standard soaps.
What I would try is to saponify your esters with calcium hydroxide and then do a metathesis reaction with the aluminum sulfate precipitating CaSO4...
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fritz
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Oh, I just waste my expensive chemicals by producing senseless mixtures for no special reason.
seriously: Al-soaps are used e.g. as thickening agents. For my desired purpose I could have the same effect with polystyrene, `normal´ soap or other
stuff.
As a little indication: above all I´m interested in Al-soaps with the general formula : Al(OH)R1R2 whereas R1 & R2 are residues of oleic,
NAphthenic and PALMitic acid. I read something about these compounds and thought by myself that it should be possible to synthesize these substances
or related materials and study their properties.
Al koholic thank you for your efforts but I´m very sorry to say that your informations are not very useful for me. Al-soaps are solids and reacting
Ca-soaps with Al-sulfate to obtain Al-soaps by precipiating the sulfate with the Ca as a matter of principle is a very good idea but unfortunatelly
Ca-soaps are insoluble in water. So I doubt if this reaction may be possible.
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