Glycerol Tristearate (Tristearin)

About This Product

Glycerol tristearate, tristearin, is glycerol esterified on all three hydroxyl groups with stearic acid. It is made by hydrogenating, bleaching and refining animal or vegetable fat, and is supplied as a hard white solid, usually as flakes or powder, melting in the low seventies Celsius. Because all three positions are esterified, the molecule has no free hydroxyl group at all, and that single structural fact explains most of its behaviour. It is not an emulsifier, unlike the mono- and diglycerides it is often shelved beside: with no polar head it has almost no affinity for water, and its value instead is as a wholly non-polar, high-melting, thermally stable solid. In rigid PVC that makes it an effective external lubricant and release agent, migrating to the metal interface and preventing plate-out without interfering with fusion. In pharmaceuticals and cosmetics it is an ointment and stick matrix that sets firm and releases actives slowly. In candles and wax blends it raises melting point and hardness. It is also the standard hardstock in interesterification, where it is randomised with a liquid oil to build a designed solid fat content curve without partial hydrogenation and its trans acids. It is used as a lubricant and release agent in PVC and other thermoplastics, as a matrix for ointments and sticks, as a hardener in candles and wax blends, in textile and leather auxiliaries, and as a hardstock in interesterified fats. Bio Green Chem supplies glycerol tristearate to specification on melting point, iodine value, acid value and saponification value, in 25 kg bags. Confirm whether a vegetable-origin grade is required.