Trans‐isomerization of oleic acid and potassium oleate by ionizing radiation

Summary The oleic acid of IV 89.2 was irradiated with cathode rays at doses of 15 × 10 6 to 70 × 10 6 rep and was found to have been trans ‐isomerized from 2.5% at 45 × 10 6 rep to 9.4% at 70 × 10 6 rep; the oleic acid of IV 89.8 irradiated at doses of 13.4 × 10 6 to 401.6 × 10 6 rep and was found to have been trans ‐isomerized to 4.9% at 187.4 × 10 6 rep and to 14.6% at 401.6%. The trans ‐isomerization was independent of oxygen. Aqueous solutions of potassium oleate at 1% concentration were irradiated with doses from 1 × 10 6 rep to 5 × 10 6 rep. The oleic acid recovered from the irradiated solutions was found to have been trans ‐isomerized from 8.1% at 1 × 10 6 rep to 1.9% at 5 × 10 6 rep; the oleic acid recovered from the 2.5% solutions was found to have been trans ‐isomerized to 8.3% at 5 × 10 6 rep, 11.9% at 10 × 10 6 rep, and 0.1% at 30 × 10 6 rep. A modified “baseline” technique in infrared spectrophotometric analysis is described.