Cetyl palmitate

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Structural formula
Structural formula of cetyl palmitate
General
Surname Cetyl palmitate
other names
  • Hexadecyl hexadecanoate ( IUPAC )
  • Hexadecanoic acid hexadecyl ester
  • Cetaceum artificiale
  • Spermaceti synth.
  • Whale rat synth.
Molecular formula C 32 H 64 O 2
Brief description

almost white solid

External identifiers / databases
CAS number 540-10-3
EC number 208-736-6
ECHA InfoCard 100.007.943
PubChem 10889
Wikidata Q409361
properties
Molar mass 480.87 g mol −1
Physical state

firmly

density

0.82 g cm −3 (80 ° C)

Melting point

43-45 ° C

solubility

almost insoluble in water

Refractive index

1.4398 (70 ° C)

safety instructions
GHS labeling of hazardous substances
no GHS pictograms
H and P phrases H: no H-phrases
P: no P-phrases
As far as possible and customary, SI units are used. Unless otherwise noted, the data given apply to standard conditions . Refractive index: Na-D line , 20 ° C

Cetyl palmitate , also known as cetyl ester wax , palmitic acid cetyl ester and whale rate substitute , is the ester of saturated C 16 carboxylic acid ( palmitic acid ) and saturated C 16 alcohol ( cetyl alcohol ). It is used in the cosmetics industry as a moisturizing thickener for ointments and creams, earlier in the mineral oil industry as a lubricant additive.

History and occurrence

Cetyl palmitate, an animal wax, used to be extracted from the whale rat , which occurs in amounts of up to 5 tons in the head cavities of the sperm whale . Cetyl palmitate is the main component of whale rat. Since the whaling - moratorium in 1985 synthetic cetyl palmitate is used.

Extraction and presentation

The whale rat, which used to be obtained from natural sources, was further processed directly; today's synthetic cetyl palmitate is obtained by esterifying natural saturated and unsaturated fatty acids and saturated fatty alcohols . The fatty acids required are obtained by fractional distillation of the corresponding saturated fatty acids; the fatty alcohols, for example, from natural fats by hydrolysis and subsequent hydrogenation . The commercially available "cetyl palmitate" is a mixture of different esters with an average molar mass of around 500 g · mol −1 .

properties

Cetyl palmitate is used in creams and ointments up to a level of 3%. The cream / ointment produced in this way should be smoother with a comparable viscosity than when using, for example, cetyl alcohol or beeswax. The creams have moisturizing and smoothing properties.

use

Cetyl palmitate is used as a high-quality consistency agent for ointments and is a component of the cooling ointment (Unguentum leniens) according to the German Pharmacopoeia.

Individual evidence

  1. a b c d e f Data sheet cetyl palmitate (PDF) from Merck , accessed on January 19, 2011.
  2. Safety data sheet (Caelo) .
  3. David R. Lide (Ed.): CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics . 90th edition. (Internet version: 2010), CRC Press / Taylor and Francis, Boca Raton, FL, Physical Constants of Organic Compounds, pp. 3-278.

Web links