What's Really in Ozonized Glycerin? | Chemical Profile
What's Really in Ozonated Glycerin? What We Found
Introduction
My long term objective is to understand the utility of ozonized glycerin and how to consistently replicate the best properties. Given the complexities involved, my approach is focused on fully understanding it's characteristics and creating the best ozonized glycerin I possibly can.
The truth is, no one has yet established a definitive method for producing the “the best” ozonized glycerin, because without a clear understanding of its composition, how can we define what “the best” even means? I plan to solve this problem.
Ozonized glycerin has long been surrounded by speculation. What happens when ozone interacts with glycerin? How does this transformation affect its potential uses? Recent analysis provided by Theriome have delivered eye-opening insights, although more is needed.
In effort to be collaborative with other individual and entities who are on a similar path, I have published the raw LCMS data set here. This data set is intended more for chemists and researchers, as it is not very approachable to the layperson, but you are welcome to view it as you please.
What We Know
Our analysis has provided several key insights into the chemical composition of ozonized glycerin:
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Glyceric Acid Boom: One of the most abundant molecules in the ozonized sample was (2R)-2,3-Dihydroxypropanoic acid, commonly known as glyceric acid. Its concentration was over 4,800 times higher than in untreated glycerin.
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Glycolic Acid Formation: Glycolic acid, a well-known exfoliating agent used in skincare, was present at nearly 47 times the level found in the untreated sample. This suggests ozonized glycerin could have potential positive properties.
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Nitrogen-Containing Compounds: When analyzing samples where an oxygen concentrator was used in production, we found a high abundance of nitrogen-containing compounds. This is likely due to the presence of nitrogen in ambient air, which gets incorporated into the system when oxygen concentrators are used instead of pure oxygen tanks. The nitrogen-containing compounds identified could have unknown effects on the stability and functionality of the final product. Simply O3 utilizes pure oxygen from oxygen tanks in production to eliminate the risk of nitrogen-related byproducts, ensuring a purer and more controlled chemical profile. Due to these findings, it is now strongly recommended to avoid using an oxygen concentrator and instead rely exclusively on pure oxygen tanks for ozonized glycerin production to maintain consistency and reduce potential unwanted molecular interactions.
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Avoiding Nitrogen Contamination: Due to the high abundance of nitrogen-containing compounds, it is recommended other producers to use pure oxygen from oxygen tanks instead of oxygen concentrators to minimize unwanted byproducts.
What We Don’t Know
There are still several unanswered questions:
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Are there any unidentified compounds in the mixture? Ozonization can create complex molecular rearrangements, and some molecules may not have been fully detected with our current methods.
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Is there any residual ozone left in the final product? This needs further testing. With our knowledge about ozone gas, ozone oils, and ozonated water, we do not expect to find any ozone molecules in the mixture. More likely, we the ozone creates the acids we want and is dismantled by the glycerin, due to it's instability.
What We Are Excited About
Several findings suggest ozonized glycerin may have promising applications:
- The Unknown: Ozonized Glycerin is an open field to be discovered. We hope to advance the research and potential functions.
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Potential Skincare: The high presence of glycolic acid could make it an interesting candidate for dermatological use.
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Possible Antimicrobial Properties: Organic acids produced through ozonation are often linked to antimicrobial activity.
Next Steps
To build on these discoveries, our next phase of analysis will include:
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Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS): This will be used to rule out any residual ozone within the mixture. GC-MS is particularly effective in detecting volatile compounds and will help determine if any unreacted ozone remains in the system.
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Resonance-Induced Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (RI-NMR): This advanced technique will offer another angle to identifying compounds in the mixture. RI-NMR will provide further structural insights and help confirm the presence of specific molecules within the ozonized glycerin.
By pursuing these next steps, we aim to fully characterize ozonized glycerin. From there we can determine the best possible way to produce ozonized glycerin, making it more stable and contain even more of the desired properties.
- Micah Lowe
