How do you lowr the melting point of beeswax?

[Victor66]

Can I also make the beeswax liquid at 10 degrees Celsius and solid at 20 degrees Celsius?

[studiot]

39 minutes ago, Victor66 said:

Can I also make the beeswax liquid at 10 degrees Celsius and solid at 20 degrees Celsius?

Would you like to reconsider this question or explain what you mean ?

Edited July 15, 2020 by studiot

[Victor66]

38 minutes ago, studiot said:

Would you like to reconsider this question or explain what you mean ?

No, why? I know there are companies that do this. DY's liquid bandage is made out of beeswax, oils and clay along with active substances. It's liquid and it hardens on skin. How do they do that? I want to make something similar at home.

[studiot]

So why is the substance to be liquid at a lower temperature than when it is a solid ?

[Victor66]

33 minutes ago, studiot said:

So why is the substance to be liquid at a lower temperature than when it is a solid ?

I am not sure that I understand the question. Because that's what I need, if that's what you're asking.

[Dord]

1 hour ago, Victor66 said:

No, why? I know there are companies that do this. DY's liquid bandage is made out of beeswax, oils and clay along with active substances. It's liquid and it hardens on skin. How do they do that? I want to make something similar at home.

I don't think the melting point is relevant here.

My experience of liquid bandages (but not DY's) is that the liquid dries out when exposed to air (evaporation?) which is hastened by the patient's body temperature.

I don't know the chemical processes involved but imagine they would be the same as when paint it taken from a sealed tin and applied to a surface.

[joigus]

I think it's surface chemistry we're talking about here, rather than wax changing phase. Otherwise it would be incompatible with the principles of thermodynamics, I think.

Waxes and rubbers have some surprising properties. Rubbers, e.g., cool down when stretched. When long molecules cool down under situations that would normally induce a temperature increase, that's because the very long molecules get more ordered when stretched, instead of disordered. Not same case as OP but, as I said, "surprising" properties.

3 hours ago, studiot said:

So why is the substance to be liquid at a lower temperature than when it is a solid ?

I share the puzzlement. +1

It can't be just the temperature that does it. It must be a combination of temperature, moisture, and most importantly, polar bonding with molecules in the skin cells. Otherwise, I'm clueless about what goes on here.

1 hour ago, Dord said:

I don't think the melting point is relevant here.

+1. I agree. Again, it must be polar bondings and their effect, having to do with introducing molecular ordering in the very long wax chains.

[Victor66]

I'm not sure what polar bondings are, but this is how they explain it in "Physical basis for poloxamer interactions" (IRVING R. SCHMOLKA):

The poloxamer dissolves in water due to the formation of hydrogen bonds between
the many ether oxygen atoms and the water molecules. Micelles, which are associations
or aggregates of molecules, form.4 It is thought that some water molecules, in
addition to bonding with the two hydrophilic polyoxyethylene groups, associate with
the ether oxygen atoms of the polyoxypropylene hydrophobe. As the temperature is
raised, the poloxamer micelle increases in size due to an increase in the number of
molecules forming the aggregate.5 Hydrogen bonds are broken and dehydration of
the micelle occurs. Conformational changes result due to alternations in the orientation
of the methyl side groups in the hydrophobc. The hydrophilic end groups are
dehydrated and extended and they interact with the end groups in other micelles,
resulting in an entanglement or formation of a gel phase.6 Lowering of the tempcrature
causes hydration to reoccur with the return of the liquid phase.

 

I was thinking about emulating liquid bandages that exist on the market and adding some active substances of my own, the basis of these bandages being olive oil and wax.

No, I have no idea how they do that, wax melting at 60 degrees celsius, but I am really intrigued by that.