Something funny happened on the way to neutrality

[chemisttree]

TL;DR Summary

A thought experiment goes wrong!

I watched a “What Are We Eating?” video by Wolfe Pit about a cheap steak being real meat or just glued trimmings. My interest was in the glue itself since I have a professional interest in crosslinking proteins. Anyway, the narrator goes through the ingredient list and comes to sodium diacetate. I think, “Hoo boy! Some genius thinks that either sodium is divalent or that acetate has a formal charge of 1/2! That’s rich, isn’t it? People who manufacture our “food” don’t know simple chemistry! A bit scary.

But then I check just to make sure... I was wrong ONCE. OMG! Wrong again! It’s a real thing! There really is such a thing as sodium diacetate. It forms a solid with a reproducible molecular formula. Has its very own entry in the Merck Index (8555 in the 11thEd). So if I take acetic acid and titrate it to half way to the endpoint, I make a new compound?

Yeah, at least once its dried to a powder.

 

[chemisttree]

CAS[126-96-5]

What’s next? If that’s true, then shouldn’t calcium diacetate be able to precipitate as the triacetate?

World. Rocked.

Calcium triacetate, CAS[66905-25-7]

 

[Borek]

Yep, it is used in dry salad dressing mixes.

Haven't seen triacetate though.

 

[symbolipoint]

Yes, I too have heard of sodium diacetate, but forgot exactly what it is. It is also found in some seasonings. I believe some mixture or combination of sodium acetate and acetic acid. I don't remember. Try look it up.

See if this helps: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_diacetate

 

[chemisttree]

I assume its a compound like a hydrate. Start with sodium acetate and add a molecule of acetic acid.

 

[Borek]

My approach was that it is just an interesting crystalline form of the mixture, where each sodium acetate is accompanied by an acetic acid molecule.

In a way similar to basic or mixed salts (alum type), where things that are otherwise independent (and can be separated) crystallize together in a stoichiometric ratio.

 

[chemisttree]

And potassium diacetate CAS [4251-29-0]