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Author: Subject: Potassium stearate & Calcium stearate solubility
chipster1234
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[*] posted on 1-11-2012 at 17:31
Potassium stearate & Calcium stearate solubility


Dear All

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
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Paddywhacker
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[*] posted on 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.
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watson.fawkes
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[*] posted on 1-11-2012 at 20:35


Quote: Originally posted by chipster1234  
could the answer be that calcium stearate has 2 stearic acid groups whereas potassium has only 1?
Why yes. Which one of the two has a stronger dipole moment?
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Nicodem
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2-11-2012 at 04:29

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