Lithium soap
| Lithium salts of individual fatty acids (examples) |
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Lithium soap is a collective name for lithium salts of individual fatty acids or - more often - mixtures of lithium salts of several fatty acids.
Manufacturing
The saponification of natural fats and oils with lithium hydroxide provides mixtures of lithium salts of fatty acids and glycerine . The proportions of the individual fatty acid anions in the mixture of lithium salts depends on the nature and provenance of the triglyceride used as the raw material . A chemically largely uniform lithium soap can be obtained by reacting a pure fatty acid with a stoichiometric amount of lithium hydroxide. An example of such lithium soap is lithium stearate, the lithium salt of stearic acid (octadecanoic acid), a colorless powder, soluble in water and ethanol .
use
Lithium soaps are primarily used as a thickener in high-quality mineral oil- based lubricating greases and waxes and for the production of pencils .
More soaps
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Brockhaus ABC Chemie , VEB FA Brockhaus Verlag Leipzig 1965, p. 805.
- ↑ Otto-Albrecht Neumüller (Ed.): Römpps Chemie-Lexikon. Volume 3: H-L. 8th revised and expanded edition. Franckh'sche Verlagshandlung, Stuttgart 1983, ISBN 3-440-04513-7 , pp. 2386-2387.