[Ballistic]

Hello! Don't worry I'm still alive!

Guys, we buy in Soluble Starch for basic experiments. But what is Soluble Starch?
According to Wikipedia, you use Corn Starch and make a paste which will then dissolve in warm water.

But when you buy a container of "Soluble" starch, it is obviously not this paste. So what is it?

Any ideas?

[Ballistic]

Please don't just minus a thingy because it's an easy question. If you minus a snack thing for asking an easy question, why not answer it?

[billnotgatez]

What is the product name
maybe we can use
MSDS
or
Patent
or
Specification sheets from chemical company
or
etc.

PS.
People usually get negative snacks because it appears they have violated forum rules.
For instance, the rule that states for you to present some of the work you have already done to answer the question so we can help you further

for instance, you could have GOOGLEd

soluble starch

and found this definition and asked us to help you understand it.

SOLUBLE STARCH
:  a modified starch that is capable of dissolving in hot water to give a limpid solution and is formed from raw starch esp. by relatively mild treatment with acids, by oxidation, or by heating with glycerol

Since, you did not do something like this someone may give you a negative snack
(But I am not going to).

Part of being a citizen scientist is to do research which includes reading research.

If you are not a citizen scientist and are just a person off the street with a question, it is better to state that in your question. That way we can try to answer the questions in layman terms.

If the question requires lots of background knowledge in science and chemistry we may direct you to links that will help fill in the background, rather than type several pages of information in a response.

Regards bill

[Ballistic]

That's fine Bill, and I had done a fair bit of googling before posting, I just took offense at the rather unfriendly approach of some to waltz in, take a snack, and waltz out without saying anything.

[curiouscat]

That's fine Bill, and I had done a fair bit of googling before posting,

What did googling reveal?

[Ballistic]

Curiouscat: I looked on the tub I have on the shelf and it said CAS 9005-25-8, but when I googled 9005-25-8, it seemed to point to a load of different types of Starch. (a generic CAS number for starch?)
I learnt that Starch in it's native form is made up of a couple of different substances and there appear to be numerous processes and treatments which Starch can go through to give finished products of modified Starches with different properties.
Looking at bills link, it seems to hint, but nothing definite at the substance Amylodextrin.
But here I stumble on a contradiction. Amylodextrin has CAS no.  9005-84-9 which does not match what I have on the shelf.
Maybe there are many types of Soluble Starch? So I am kinda back to square one.

[curiouscat]

Did you google "soluble starch"

[Ballistic]

Yes, but it doesn't tell you, lots of If's and but's.

[Arkcon]

Sorry Ballistic: about the snack attacks, but thems the breaks, at least here on Chemical forums.  Brielfy, I'd bet anything you can google for "soluble starch recipe", its a pretty common reagent.  Or just buy it from Sigma-Aldrich or elsewhere.  Anyway, there's a couple of misnomers:  soluble starch isn't actually "soluble" , its just a very stable colloid.  It's made by essentially boiling a starch suspension gently, although made yourself, it won't keep for long without a preservative.  And CAS numbers can be assigned to any compound or mixture a company asks to be generated.  So there's no reason the CAS number has to track different preparations of the same product.

[billnotgatez]

I am curious as the name of the product that was on the tub

[Ballistic]

Thankyou both of you. The bottle is a lab reagent bottle and it's described as soluble starch, nothing really interesting on there.

I know that it can be picked up from lab suppliers but it kinda defeats what it is I am doing which is looking out for what can be made from around the house and garden or bought cheaply then refined or mixed, ball milled, whatever, to create things myself. e.g. not done it myself yet but create alum potassium sulphate from Coke cans for example.

So a lot of my questions on here are met with, just buy some - it's cheap as chips, and that's not what I'm all about.

[billnotgatez]

It appears you still have to by the regular starch to make the soluble starch.
Then heating with glycerol seems to be interesting.
What would be more interesting is proving the results quality and purity in a home lab.

[Ballistic]

Yes, corn starch seems the starting point. When I have worked on a process I plan to test mainly for solubility and usefulness as an indicator and will be relying largely on the purity of the source starch and accuracy of the process.

[sophotect]

I know that it can be picked up from lab suppliers but it kinda defeats what it is I am doing which is looking out for what can be made from around the house and garden or bought cheaply then refined or mixed, ball milled, whatever, to create things myself. e.g. not done it myself yet but create alum potassium sulphate from Coke cans for example.

So a lot of my questions on here are met with, just buy some - it's cheap as chips, and that's not what I'm all about.

By your description it sounds like you just want to experiment with starch(es) & therein lies the difficulty of giving you a straight answer - there are different types & formulations of starches, just as there different types of wood. In fact, rephrasing your question slightly differently, eg: "I want buoyant wood for a flotation experiment, but when I buy pine planks from Home Depot, they are not so buoyant, they sink right to the bottom of the truck bed."

The buoyancy of pine planks depends on the fluid that they are immersed in, just as the solubility of starch depends on the temperature, density & polarity of the solute.

For home experimentation, I think the CAS number is dead end, at least until you have something useful, then you could use the CAS number to recreate a batch.

The "process" you mention has to be organized around a specific goal, such as making a plastic widget from starch. When you have a clear idea of physical properties of said widget must possess such as a melting point above 70°C or a specific density then you will begin to appreciate the complexity of the question.

[Ballistic]

Hello, fascinating information. I imagine that - that would be how it would happen in industry.
When a school science teacher orders it from a chemical supplier, he's really just interested in the experiments
at hand, and they are normally always the same basic experiments.

I would think that a chemical supplier would probably have this in mind when sourcing the chemicals because they specialise
in educational chemicals, whereas I bet if I went direct to a professional company who processes starch,
they would probably have a lot more info on the various properties as you mention.