Physicochemical studies on zinc dicaprylate

Abstract

Zinc dicaprylate has been prepared and characterised by IR, X-ray and TGA techniques. In addition, conductometric, viscometric and density measurements of the soap solutions have been carried out in benzene-methanol mixture (50%, v/v). The IR results support the ionic nature of zinc dica-prylate as well as the dimeric structure of the fatty acid. The X-ray study reveals that zinc soap has a single layer structure. The TGA results suggest that the thermal decomposition of zinc dicaprylate is kinetically of zero order with activation energy of 8.9 kcal mol^-1. The values of the critical micelle concentration, CMC, for solutions containing 40%, 50% and 60% methanol in methanol-benzene mixture are 1.9 x 10^-3, 2.1 X 10^-3 and 2.4 x 10^-3 <em>M, </em>respectively. Viscosity and density measurements also support the commencement of micellization at these critical soap concentrations.