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Louis Kam Lau

Advice on forming a 10% solution of Maltol

Donnie McNeil  Follow

Maltol (3-Hydroxy-2-methyl-4-pyrone) appears to be most soluble in ethanol.
https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/maltol#section=Melting-Point gives solubility as1 to 10 mg/mL at 72° F in water, 10900 mg/L at 15 deg C (about 1%); one gram dissolves in 82 mL water, 80 mL glycerin, 21 mL alcohol, 28 mL propylene glycol; Freely soluble in hot water, chloroform; sparingly soluble in benzene, ether, petroleum ether; soluble in alkali hydroxides giving yellow solutions

Your fluffy floating clumps suggest something like water, which would reduce the solubility of maltol and could clump it up. or maybe there is some other impurity that complicates things.

You could try is to make a 5% solution in warm dry ethanol (apparently no problem...) and then evaporate off excess solvent. If you can get 10% when hot, but the solution drops crystals on cooling, you will have a saturated solution. But maybe it won't precipitate...

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Jenna Johnson  Follow
Thanks! I guess I just have to accept that a 10% strength solution is not possible for Maltol and start looking at weaker solutions...More
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