Study on synthesis of zinc propionate as the food additive under microwave irradiation

With the water as the solvent, zinc propionate was synthesized from propionic acid and zinc oxide as the raw material under microwave irradiation, and the processing condition during the synthesis was studied, and the product was tested by IR spectra, Elemental Analysis and EDTA coordination method. The effects of reaction temperature, feed ratio, reaction time, deionized water, adding amount of microwave irradiation power on the yield of the Zinc propionate were investigated. The process condition was optimized by using the Box- Behnken center combination design principle and response surface methodology on the basis of single factor experiment, and the optimization results were showed that reaction temperature was 80℃, feed ratio was 2.23∶1, reaction time was 12.31min , deionized water added about 4 times as propionic acid volume , microwave irradiation power was 300W, and the yield of the product could reach 93.70% . The method has various advantages, such as simple process, short time and high yield.