Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Calcium hydroxide and sunflower oil

Random - 19-4-2011 at 13:15

I am going to do liquid-liquid extraction of butyric acid from water using vegetable oil. Then I am going to extract butyric acid into water layer again using Ca(OH)2. But I have one question:

Can Ca(OH)2 saponify vegetable oil easily? Because then I would contaminate the butyric acid with all those other fatty acids.

Nicodem - 19-4-2011 at 13:29

You might want to check the logP of butyric acid first. Vegetable oil is not much more polar than alkanes.