Solubilise medium chain fatty acid powder :(

me12345

Hey... im trying to solubilise a hydrophobic powder and not having much luck Ive tried mixing it with Ethanol or isopropanol but i dont think it is dissolving as the liquid is cloudy and one i dilute it in water...... it comes back out of solution :mad: I also tried mixing a bit of 1M HCl with the water and that worked a wee bit but not as much as id hoped ......

I need to use the mixture to do in vitro bacterial inactivation tests so the medium used to dissolve it cannot be lethal to my bugs . Would really appreciate any suggestions........

Gaspode

Have you tried a surfactant like tween? At low concentrations (around 0.5-1% v/v) it is not toxic to most bacteria.

mloc

Have you tried DMSO? What concentration are you trying to dissolve it at?

CramCycle

mloc wrote: »

Have you tried DMSO? What concentration are you trying to dissolve it at?

DMSO is known to induce mutations. I know those of us that do cell culture use it all the time for freezing down but this is more out of necessity than actual want. I think the Tween is your best bet as mentioned by Gaspode.

avalon68

Could you try sonication? - Some people in my lab use it for getting difficult compounds into solution.