• Formulating

  Triethanolamine + Salicylic Acid

  Posted by JonahRay on January 13, 2022 at 6:55 pm

  Hi friends,

  If I have a 1% SA serum and I use triethanolamine to bring the pH up to a more comfortable level like 4.0-4.5 (I’m aware of the pKa of SA etc.), is the TEA and SA technically forming triethanolamine salicylate? Is that a problem and would it be more wise to use NaOH?

  Thanks for any advice!

  chemicalmatt replied 2 years, 11 months ago 2 Members · 1 Reply

  • formulating
  • salicylic acid
• 1 Reply

• 

  chemicalmatt

  Member

  January 17, 2022 at 6:43 pm

  The answer is yes, that product is triethanolamine salicylate, and amine salt not an amide. No problem using it other than the free DEA in TEA if you are using the 85% stock. Switch to 99% and that issue dissolves too.

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