Esterification Reaction
Esters are becoming more and more popular in cosmetic formulations. Properly selected, esters that are either natural or naturally derived can impact positively and significantly in formulation, replacing dimethicone, mineral oil and other less sustainable oils. Properly selected esters can improve aesthetics and offer heretofore unavailable properties.
Esters are a class of compounds that have been used as polar oils in many formulations. Esters consist of a carbonyl group (C=O) covalently bonded to –OR, where R is an alkyl group. Esters cover a wide range of products and are classified by the groups connected on either side of the -C(O)O- bond. The majority of esters used in the cosmetic field are produced by the so called “direct Esterification” process”. Direct esterification is a process by which organic acid and an alcohol are directly reacted. This distinguishes them form “trans-esterification esters”, which as the name suggests are made by trans-esterification. Trans-esterification is a process of reacting alcohol with an ester, rather than an acid. A simple example is reacting methyl stearate with decanol, making decyl stearate and methanol. Instead of getting water as a byproduct like direct esterification, the byproduct of a trans-esterification reaction is an alcohol. Table 1 shows the reaction sequence.
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