Saponification value
The saponification number (SN ) is an indicator for the chemical characterization of fats and oils. You will be involved in its purity testing and quality control. The saponification value is a measure of the acids linked in a gram of fat freely occur. It specifies how much of potassium hydroxide (in mg) required to neutralize the free acids present in 1 g of fat and the present ester bonds to cleave ( saponification). The smaller the average molar mass of a fat is ( are thus contained, the more short-chain fatty acids), the greater is the saponification number. Practically, it is a back titration. The fat sample is heated with an excess of ethanolic potassium hydroxide solution at reflux and the amount of KOH used is not determined by acidimetric titration in the presence of a color indicator with hydrochloric acid.