Titanium salts of mono‐carboxylic acids. I. Attempted Preparation of Titanium Tetra‐Soaps

Abstract

Abstract With a view to prepare the tetra‐soaps of titanium, the reaction between titanium alkoxides and excess of various fatty acids has been studied in refluxing benzene. The alcohol produced was removed azeotropically with the solvent. However, all the four alkoxy groups per titanium atom could not be replaced in any of the experiments. Even on carrying out the reaction in a higher boiling solvent like toluene, similar results were obtained and only 3 moles of alcohol per mole of the alkoxide could be azeotropically distilled out. It has been shown that the fourth alkoxy group is held in such a manner that it cannot be displaced even on refluxing the reaction product with higher alcohols or water. On heating the product to about 200° under reduced pressure, the excess fatty acid which distilled out has been shown to be mixed with some ester and the residue was found to be a decomposed titanium soap of the type TiO x (OOCR) 4−2x with the value of ‘x’ nearly 0.5. These observations have been explained either by the steric hindrance to the entry of the fourth acid group or by the occurrence of other side reactions with the formation of organic ester.