I heard that oils deteriorate at pH below 9 or so. How does this work and is it the same for all oils?
edit: i’m talking about anti dusting oil which you add to coat powders while they are in a solution
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TL;DR : Oil deteriorates at lower pH because the strong stuff in lower pH can make the oil break down and go bad, just like how strong things can make your special bread get all mushy.
Okay, imagine oil is like a sandwich you made with some special bread. The bread represents the oil, and it’s very sensitive to certain things. Now, pH is like a scale that tells us how strong or weak some stuff is. When the pH gets lower, it means there’s more of the strong stuff around.
So, when oil is exposed to lower pH (more strong stuff), it starts to break down, just like your special bread might get soggy if you pour something very strong, like lemon juice, on it. This breaking down of the oil can make it not work as well or even go bad.
Are you asking about motor oil or vegetable oil? Because the answer will be really different.
Vegetable oil is reasonably stable at low pH, but gets hydrolyzed at high pH. That’s literally how soap is made: treat a triglyceride (bio-based oil or fat) with high pH water.
Petroleum oils don’t have any significant pH catalyzed chemistry.
In either case, it’s not meaningful to talk about pH unless there’s water present.
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