Isopropyl palmitate is a colorless to light yellow oily liquid that is not volatile, flammable, and has a slight greasy smell. It is soluble in organic solvents such as ethanol and ether, but insoluble in water and glycerol. It is permeable to the skin.
The production method of isopropyl palmitate is as follows:
1. Direct esterification method of palmitic acid and isopropyl ester: in strong solids such as zirconia In the presence of an acid catalyst, palmitic acid and isopropyl alcohol undergo an esterification reaction, and then distilled under reduced pressure to obtain the isopropyl palmitate fraction;
2. In the presence of a zeolite-loaded zinc catalyst, at 2.75 Palmitic acid and propylene can quickly react under kPa to generate isopropyl palmitate;
3. The mixture of propylene and palmitic acid passes through a sulfonic acid ion exchange resin to generate isopropyl palmitate;
4. Transesterification method: Use oils containing palmitic acid as raw materials, such as palmitic acid oil, coconut oil, etc. First, a mixture of methyl esters of fatty acids such as palmitic acid is produced through a transesterification reaction with methanol, and the reaction product is distilled to separate the methyl esters of other fatty acids to obtain methyl palmitate. Then methyl palmitate and isopropyl alcohol are transesterified at 85~95°C, and the methanol and other impurities are evaporated to obtain the product isopropyl palmitate.