Lauric Acid

About This Product

Lauric acid is a straight-chain saturated fatty acid with twelve carbon atoms, formula C12H24O2, and CAS number 143-07-7. Its systematic name is dodecanoic acid. It is recovered by splitting coconut or palm kernel oil, in which it is the dominant fatty acid at roughly half the total, and then fractionally distilling the mixture. It is supplied as white flakes, beads or powder, melting at about 44 degrees Celsius.

Twelve carbons is the pivotal chain length in surfactant chemistry, and the reason is a balance. A surfactant needs a tail long enough to be driven out of water and into a micelle, but short enough that the molecule still dissolves and moves quickly to a new air-water interface. At C12 that balance is optimal, which is why lauryl derivatives such as sodium lauryl sulfate foam faster and more copiously than their C16 or C18 equivalents, and why soap made from coconut or palm kernel oil lathers immediately while tallow soap does not. The same chain length also gives useful antimicrobial activity, particularly as its monoglyceride, monolaurin.

It is used to manufacture fatty alcohols and lauryl sulfate surfactants, soap bases, alkanolamides, esters and emulsifiers, plasticisers, metal soaps and cosmetic ingredients.

Bio Green Oleo supplies lauric acid to specification on assay, chain length distribution, titre, iodine value, acid and saponification value, colour and moisture.