Unsaturation in fats and oils

Food labels and advertisements often refer to unsaturated fats and oils. A comparison of the amounts
of unsaturated fats and oils present in different foodstuffs can be made by titrating solutions of
samples with aqueous bromine (bromine water), which reacts with the carbon - carbon double bonds
present in such fats and oils.

Lesson organisation

This is suitable as a class experiment for advanced classes where sufficient fume cupboard space is
available, perhaps as part of a circus of experiments if such space is limited. Do not be tempted to do
this in an open lab as too much bromine vapour escapes. Two such titrations, comparing two different
fats or oils on a semi-quantitative basis, might be done in 45 minutes by students who already have
experience of carrying out titrations.

Apparatus and chemicals

Eye protection

Each working group will require:

Conical flask (100 cm3)

Dropping pipette
Measuring cylinder (10 or 25 cm3)
Burette, filled with bromine water (see note 2)
Burette stand, or clamp and stand
White tile

Access to:

A fume cupboard

Bromine water, approx 0.02 mol dm3 (Harmful), provided in ready-filled burettes (see note 1)
Volasil 244 (Harmful), 5 cm3 needed for each titration (see note 3)
Various vegetable oils, fats, as available (see note 4)

Technical notes

Bromine water (Harmful)

Volasil 244 (Harmful)

1 Bromine water should be freshly prepared in a fume cupboard. 1 dm3 should be sufficient for around
10 working groups carrying out two titrations each. If less is required, reduce quantities pro rata, but
any excess can be stored as bromine water for future qualitative use. The experiment is only semi-
quantitative essentially comparing results for different foodstuffs.

2 50 cm3 burettes will not fit in many fume cupboards - 25 cm3 burettes are better, if available. The
burettes should be filled in the fume cupboard with great care to avoid spillage. If the experiment is not
carried out on the same day they should be loosely corked to reduce evaporative loss of bromine.
3 Volasils are organo-silicon (silicone) solvents which are safer to use than most common organic
solvents. Volasil 244 (octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane) is available from VWR International (formerly
Merck/BDH) and Sigma-Aldrich (November 2007).

4 Coconut oil, olive oil, palm oil and sunflower oil should give a good range of comparative results.
Animal fats can be tried, but should be pre-tested to ensure they dissolve sufficiently in Volasil 244;
melted fats may dissolve more readily than solid fats.

Procedure

HEALTH & SAFETY: Wear eye protection. The whole procedure should take place in a fume
cupboard.

a Measure 5 cm3 of Volasil into the conical flask.

b Using a dropping pipette, carefully add exactly five drops of the selected oil to the Volasil, and swirl
to ensure mixing.

c Note the initial reading of the bromine water in the burette.

d Add the bromine water from the burette to the solution in the conical flask slowly, shaking
vigorously after each addition until the bromine colour disappears.

e As the bromine colour takes longer to fade with each addition, add less bromine water each time until
there is just an excess of bromine in the flask, as shown by a permanent yellow tint.

f Note the final reading of the burette. Subtract the initial reading to find the volume added.

g Repeat the experiment with exactly five drops of a different oil.

If a solid fat is tested, use a top-pan balance to measure out a mass equal to the mass of 5 drops of oil.
Teaching notes

The experiment gives a rough comparison of the degrees of unsaturation of the oils and fats tested, but
the results cannot be translated into a quantitative comparison.

If students find the colour change to a permanent yellow difficult to distinguish, a variation can be
tried using potassium manganate(VII) solution, KMnO4(aq), 0.0005 mol dm3 (Low hazard) instead.
This should be acidified using 1 mol dm-3 sulfuric acid (Irritant). The purple solution turns colourless
while unsaturation is still present. The procedure is the same as for bromine water, but 1 cm3 portions
of the potassium manganate(VII) are added with swirling until the mixture retains a feint purple colour.
The mixture requires more and more swirling as the total amount of potassium manganate(VII) used
increases.

Warming fats in the Volasil using a beaker of hot water helps the fat dissolve and also speeds up the
reaction.

Health & Safety checked, April 2008

Web Links

The above procedure is designed to avoid the use of the more hazardous iodine monochloride (Wijs
solution) which is used in the standard analysis of unsaturated fats and oils. For a description of a
procedure for use in Advanced level courses that does use Wijs solution, see the Salters Chemistry
version at:

www.york.ac.uk/org/seg/salters/chemistry/ResourceSheets/unsaturation.PDF

This site also has useful references to other materials on the same topic.