how would you convert potassium oleate soap to the corresponding fatty acid?

Expert Solution

A soap is the salt of an alkaline hydroxide and a fatty acid. Typically the cation of this salt is K+, and the anion is a long hydrocarbon chain ending in COO-. For example, potassium oleate is a soap, and its chemical formula isC18H33KO2
The process, of acidifying a soap to get a fatty acid, is essentially an exchange reaction. I want to swap the soap's K+ ions with H+ ions. Supposing I use hydrochloric acid, HCl, as my source of H+

HCl + C18H3KO2 → KCl + C18H34O2

The K+ and H+ trade places. The Na+ leaves the fatty anion, so it can go be friends with Cl- in solution, and at the same time the H+ joins with the fatty anion, making a molecule with a COOH group on one end, a fatty acid. The fatty acid is not souble in water at low (acidic) pH, so it "crashes out". It gathers together into droplets and floats on top of the heavier aqueous (water) solution.
Different fatty acids (stearate, palmate, oleate) are miscible in one another, so acidifying a mixture of soaps will give a mixture of fatty acids.

queen_honey_blossom answered 3 months ago

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