Making and using aluminum soap
Aluminum soap - like all metal soaps - are so-called fatty acid salts. Unlike soaps made from alkaline earth metals such as sodium and potassium soaps, these are not intended for washing.
Important information for the production of aluminum soap
You won't find the exact recipe for aluminum soaps so easily anywhere for good reason, because these soaps can be used to make napalm.
- In principle, you can use aluminum soap made from aluminum hydroxide, naphthenic acid or Making palmitic acid. The soap is non-explosive and harmless. But you could quickly be suspected of wanting to use them to manufacture incendiary devices. Therefore, think carefully about whether you want to make attempts in this direction.
- It is not easy to saponify and you could end up with a corrosive product that still contains acid. An excess of aluminum hydroxide, on the other hand, is harmless. You can even take this for stomach problems. Another problem is that you usually get a mixture of different aluminum soaps, some of which have different properties.
If you don't want to make metal soaps just for fun, buy some, there are several uses.
Use of metal soaps
Note that aluminum soaps are the saponification of fatty acid and aluminum. The fatty acid is the deciding factor in whether you can use the metal soap for cosmetics or not. Soaps for greases are typically not made from vegetable fats and can also contain contaminants that are harmful.
Potash is also known as potassium carbonate and can easily be made from ...
- If you want to make ointments or creams yourself, you can use aluminum soap as a base. It is an excellent thickener and also a gelling agent. So you can use it to make gels instead of a cream. For this purpose, you need to ask for swelling aluminum soaps for cosmetics.
- If you want to mix lubricating greases yourself, the soap is an excellent way to make it stable and creamy. But remember that the soap itself does not necessarily smear, it is more of a thickener and stabilizer. You also need the swelling variant of the soap for this purpose.
- Dry powder of aluminum soap is a good release agent and is suitable, among other things, as a means to matt paint and scatter molds. Choose non-swelling aluminum soaps for this purpose.
There are aluminum soaps in different qualities. For this reason, you need to know how to use it before you buy it. For cosmetics and ointments, only aluminum soap for the "cosmetic and pharmaceutical sector" is suitable.
