Solid liquid phase diagrams of binary fatty acid mixtures-Palmitic/stearic with oleic/linoleic/linolenic acid mixture

The solid liquid phase diagrams of binary mixtures of the five main saturated and unsaturated fatty acids present in most edible plant oils have been determined in this paper. These binary mixtures comprise of a saturated fatty acid, either palmitic (C16:0) or stearic (C18:0) and an unsaturated one, oleic (C18:1), linoleic (C18:2) or linolenic (C18:3) acid. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was used to obtain an overview of the solid liquid transition behaviour including the metastable ranges of these mixtures. In order to describe all the phase transformations in these systems, the boundary functions have been determined and compared. Phase diagrams determined, illustrate characteristic behaviour in accordance to literature. This work specifically focuses on to describe the solid liquid transitions of the mixtures and not on every single transition or reaction. This paper contributes to the elucidation of the phase behaviour of these important mixtures which are applied in diverse industries.