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Tartaric Acid

Uses Of Tartaric Acid

Tartaric acid is found in cream of tartar, which is used in cooking candies and frostings for cakes. Tartaric acid is also found in baking powder, where it serves as the source of acid that reacts with sodium bicarbonate (baking soda). This reaction produces carbon dioxide gas, and lets products "rise," but does so without any "yeasty" taste, that can result from using active yeast cultures as a source of the carbon dioxide gas. Tartaric acid is used in silvering mirrors, tanning leather, and in Rochelle Salt, which is sometimes used as a laxative. Blue prints are made with ferric tartarte as the source of the blue ink. In medical analysis, tartaric acid is used to make solutions for the determination of glucose. Common esters of tartaric acid are diethyl tartrate and dibutyl tartrate, which are made by reacting tartaric acid with ethanol and butanol. In this reaction, the H of the COOH acid group is replaced with a CH3CH2 (ethyl) group or a butyl group (CH3 CH2CH2CH2-). These esters are used in manufacturing lacquer and in dyeing textiles.


Resources

Periodicals

Hunter, Beatrice. "Technological vs. Biological Needs." Consumer Research Magazine (August 1988): 8.


Louis Gotlib

KEY TERMS

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Chiral center

—A carbon atom with four different atoms or groups of atoms attached to it (sometimes called an asymmetrical carbon). Chiral centers can cause the rotation of polarized light.

Emetic

—A substance used to induce vomiting, usually to remove a poison from the body.

Isomers

—Two molecules in which the number of atoms and the types of atoms are identical, but their arrangement in space is different, resulting in different chemical and physical properties. Isomers based on chiral centers (such as tartaric acid) are sometimes called stereoisomers.

Polarized light

—Light in which the waves vibrate in only one plane, as opposed to the normal vibration of light in all planes.

Salts

—Compounds that are the products of the reaction of acids and bases. Sodium tartrate is the product of the reaction between sodium hydroxide and tartaric acid.

Additional topics

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