Summary
A spectrophotometric procedure for the determination of the acid number of tall oil has been developed. The procedure involves dissolution of a known weight of tall oil sample in acetone followed by spectrophotometric determination of total free fatty and resin acids in the solution after prior complexation of the acids with cupric ions. The total free fatty and resin acids values of tall oils, as determined by the spectrophotometric procedure, correlate well with the acid numbers of the tall oil samples. This correlation affords an alternative rapid method for determining the acid number of tall oil.
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References
ASTM Standards: Standard Methods of Testing Tall Oil, Annual Book of ASTM Standards, Part 18, American Society for Testing and Materials, Philadelphia, Pa
Drew, J.; Propst, M. 1981: Tall Oil, Chapter 11, Pulp Chemicals Association, New York
McSweeney, E. E.; Arlt, Jr., H. G.; Russell, J. 1987: Tall Oil and Its Uses —II, Chapter 2, Pulp Chemicals Association, Inc., New York
Sitholé, B. B. 1993: A rapid spectrophotometric procedure for the determination of total resin and fatty acids in pulp and paper matrices. Tappi, J., 76 (10): 123–127
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Thanks to D. Filion and S. Ellis for technical assistance and to V. Uloth for constructive discussions on the manuscript and procedure.
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Sitholé, B.B. A novel spectrophotometric method for determining the acid number of tall oil. Wood Sci.Technol. 29, 177–181 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00204583
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00204583