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 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........

FarmerGreen

Tween 80 ?

SOL

What exactly is the hydrophobic material?
If it doesn't dissolve in ethanol or isopropanol then you'll just have to try less polar things, like ethyl acetate... though that might just kill your bugs. Alternatively if it has acidic protons in it, you could dissolve it in a basic solution, have you tried NaOH or NaHCO3?

ChocolateSauce

Long chain molecules, even in ideal solvent, often have a hard time going into solution. I regularly dissolve DNA in phosphate buffer and to do that I need to sonicate the sample for 30 minutes in a high power sonicator. Try that, it might work for a variety of solvents.

invaderjim

You could try DMSO, should be safe to use on bacteria.

Gaspode

If your chemical is expected to have antimicrobial properties (in vitro), but wont dissolve in water, how do you plan to use it effectively on a larger scale? Is such a highly hydrophobic antimicrobial really a viable proposition?

FarmerGreen

If you had a lot of the hydrophobic stuff and mixed the bugs with it they would die of dehydration.
So, its not that crazy.
On the other hand, maybe they just gave him a daft job to see how he would solve the problem.

1) Go on the Boards.
2) Google.
3) Ask a colleague.
4) ..............