Jump to content

Making oleic acid from common ingredients

Powerstrip
in Chemistry

Featured Replies

Hello

 

I need oleic acid for a ferrofluid display. I have a mixture of omega oils which contains omega 3, 6, and 9 oils. 9 is the oleic acid.

 

Anyone know a method to extract the omega nine from the omega blend?

 

Anyother methods for creating oleic acid or any other type of surfactant?

Edited by Powerstrip
Forgot to specify

Saponify either olive oil or high-oleic sunflower oil (not regular sunflower oil) with NaOH and water, then acidify the resulting soap. The water insoluble liquid that seperates is a mixture of the fatty acids that made up the oils, primarily oleic acid in the case of the two oils I mentioned. This can probably be used as is for ferrofluid.

 

Instructions for making soap are readily available online. You want to use an excess of NaOH though to ensure complete saponification, while these recipes will call for an excess of oils to make a mild soap for use on skin.

 

This is a handy calculator for figuring out amounts: http://www.soapcalc.net/calc/SoapCalcWP.asp

 

Be sure to set "superfat" to 0%, then add a bit extra NaOH on top of what they suggest

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.

Configure browser push notifications
Chrome (Android)
  1. Tap the lock icon next to the address bar.
  2. Tap Permissions → Notifications.
  3. Adjust your preference.
Chrome (Desktop)
  1. Click the padlock icon in the address bar.
  2. Select Site settings.
  3. Find Notifications and adjust your preference.