Stearamide: Properties, Uses in Plastics and Regulatory Status

Stearamide (octadecanamide, also sold as stearic acid amide; CAS 124-26-5) is a primary saturated fatty acid amide used in polyolefins as a slow-migrating slip, antiblock and release agent, and as an internal lubricant. Because its C18 chain carries no carbon-carbon double bond, stearamide crystallises at the surface instead of forming the mobile lubricating layer that erucamide gives, which changes what the additive is good for.

Four instruments record its status. Stearamide is registered under REACH, is not a Substance of Very High Concern, is authorised for EU food-contact plastics as FCM substance 306 (Ref 88960) with no specific migration limit, and is covered by the FDA release-agent clearance in 21 CFR 178.3860 at good-manufacturing-practice quantities (status 23 September 2026). Stearamide is one of 437 substance profiles in our directory of plastic additives, each with the same identity, dosage and regulatory fields.

Stearamide is not stearic acid, and it is not ethylene bis stearamide (EBS). This page holds the identity that separates all three, the bloom mechanism, the physical constants, the use levels that are published and the ones that are not, 4 jobs in a compound, the COF and blocking test methods, the additive interactions, a dated regulatory matrix, the comparison with erucamide, oleamide, behenamide and EBS, and the producers a buyer can source.

Table T1. Stearamide identity card.

Footnote: identity and physical data from PubChem CID 31292; REACH data from ECHA 100.004.268; food-contact entries from Annex I of Regulation (EU) No 10/2011 and from 21 CFR 178.3860. Status as of 23 September 2026.

What Is Stearamide?#

Stearamide is the primary amide of stearic acid: one C18 saturated chain ending in a -CONH2 group, which makes it the saturated member of the fatty amide slip agents. Its systematic name is octadecanamide, and the same substance trades as stearic acid amide, stearylamide and amide C18, all under CAS 124-26-5 and EC 204-693-2. The C18:0 notation records the two facts that matter inside a polymer: eighteen carbon atoms, and no carbon-carbon double bond. Which substance does the name stearamide cover, given that three different chemicals reach the market under names containing "stearamide"?

The name covers one substance, and its chemistry sets the job. Stearamide is a primary fatty acid amide with limited solubility in polyolefins, so the molecule leaves the melt after processing and builds a crystalline layer on the article surface, where it works as a slip, antiblock and release agent, and inside the compound as an internal lubricant. As a migrating amide, stearamide belongs to the family of slip additives for plastic film, which the family hub compares class by class. No production route for stearamide sits in the primary sources behind this page, so none is stated.

Is stearamide the same as stearic acid?#

No: stearamide (C18H37NO, CAS 124-26-5) carries an amide group, while stearic acid (C18H36O2, CAS 57-11-4) carries a carboxylic acid group, and the two behave differently in a polymer. The molecular weights sit 1 g/mol apart, 283.5 g/mol against 284.5 g/mol, so a mass figure alone does not separate them. The melting points do: stearamide melts at 107-109 °C (224.6-228.2 °F) and octadecanoic acid at 69.3 °C (156.7 °F), a gap of about 38 °C (68 °F) made by one functional group.

Function follows the functional group. External lubrication in PVC and the production of metal soaps, esters and amide lubricants belong to stearic acid, the systematic octadecanoic acid, while stearamide blooms in polyolefins as a slip, antiblock and release agent. A data sheet headed "stearic acid amide" names the amide, not the acid.

Is stearamide the same as ethylene bis stearamide (EBS)?#

No: ethylene bis stearamide (EBS, CAS 110-30-5) is a bis-amide that joins two stearic chains through an ethylenediamine bridge, so it melts at 135-146 °C (275-294.8 °F) against stearamide's 107-109 °C (224.6-228.2 °F) and acts mainly as a lubricant and dispersant rather than as a surface slip agent. EBS also travels under N,N'-ethylenebis(stearamide), N,N'-ethylene distearamide, amide wax and EBS wax, and the FDA names it N,N'-distearoylethylenediamine. Its formula is C38H76N2O2 and its molecular weight 593.0 g/mol, more than twice that of stearamide.

Search results conflate the two substances because the encyclopedic record is asymmetric: an encyclopedia article exists for ethylene bis stearamide and none for stearamide, so a query for the shorter name is answered with the longer molecule. The bis-amide ethylene bis stearamide (EBS) has its own record here, with its own FCM number, its own family classification and its own dosage practice.

What does "primary saturated fatty acid amide" mean?#

A primary fatty acid amide carries one fatty chain and an unsubstituted -CONH2 group, and "saturated" means the chain holds no carbon-carbon double bond, which is exactly what separates stearamide from erucamide and oleamide. Slip amides fall into 4 sub-classes, listed below.

• Primary unsaturated amides, oleamide (C18:1) and erucamide (C22:1), whose double bond keeps the surface layer mobile.
• Primary saturated amides, stearamide (C18:0) and behenamide (C22:0), which crystallise at the surface instead.
• Secondary amides, oleyl palmitamide and stearyl erucamide, used where melt temperatures are high.
• Bis-amides, ethylene bis stearamide (EBS) and ethylene bis oleamide (EBO), which act in the melt rather than on the surface.

All four sub-classes are compared on fatty acid amide slip agents.

How Does Stearamide Work in a Polymer?#

Stearamide works by blooming: it has limited solubility in polyolefins, so after extrusion the supersaturated amide diffuses to the film surface, where its saturated C18 chains crystallise into a thin, hard layer. Blooming is the class mechanism of the primary fatty amides: the molecule is compatible enough with polyethylene and polypropylene to be compounded into the melt and incompatible enough to leave it once the article cools. What does a crystalline surface layer do that a mobile one does not?

The answer decides the whole application field. Because the layer crystallises rather than staying fluid, stearamide delivers antiblock and mould release more than a low coefficient of friction (COF), which is why formulators reach for erucamide when the target is COF and for stearamide when the target is release or blocking. Antiblock follows from the same geometry: the crystallised amide roughens the surface at micrometre scale, which reduces the real contact area between two film faces and the van der Waals adhesion that causes blocking. No COF curve, surface-concentration value or layer-thickness measurement for stearamide appears in the primary sources behind this page.

Why does a saturated C18 chain bloom more slowly than erucamide?#

Bloom speed in fatty amides follows chain length and saturation: a saturated chain packs more tightly in the polymer and crystallises faster once it reaches the surface, so stearamide is classed as a slow-medium migrating amide with high thermal stability. In supplier practice, Ampacet states the rate rule from the other direction as well, that shorter chains bloom faster but resist heat less, which makes oleamide the fast-bloom amide and erucamide the slow-bloom one. These are class rankings, not stearamide measurements.

Bloom speed also has a published time window, and it belongs to the class rather than to this substance. In supplier practice, most of the COF reduction in a slip-amide film arrives within 24 to 48 hours of extrusion and the final COF settles after 7 to 10 days, a rule Ampacet states for erucamide; no stearamide-specific bloom curve is published. Bloom curves, the 24 to 48 hour window and the effect of gauge are set out on slip agent migration and COF development.

What Are the Physical and Chemical Properties of Stearamide?#

Stearamide is a colourless to beige solid or powder with a melting point of 107-109 °C (224.6-228.2 °F) and a molecular weight of 283.5 g/mol. The properties recorded in our source library are set out below.

Table T2. Stearamide physical and chemical properties.

Two melting points circulate, and each is correct on its own basis. Commercial slip grades are specified at 98-105 °C (208.4-221 °F) rather than at the pure-substance value, because they carry the C16/C18 chain distribution of the fatty feedstock, so always compare a supplier's figure with the specification basis on its data sheet. Boiling point, flash point, density, solubility and vapour pressure for stearamide are absent from our source library, and this page gives none of them rather than copying a reagent catalogue.

Which Polymers Use Stearamide, and at What Dosage?#

Stearamide is used almost entirely in polyolefins, where it is chosen when a compound needs antiblock, release or internal lubrication rather than the lowest possible coefficient of friction. Polyolefins here means polyethylene in its LDPE, LLDPE and HDPE forms and polypropylene in film and moulded articles. How much stearamide goes into such a compound? No stearamide-specific use level exists in our source library: the slip-amide class runs at 0.05-0.12 wt% (500-1200 ppm) in LDPE/LLDPE film, a supplier guideline stated for erucamide and oleamide.

Table T3. Stearamide by polymer, role and published use level.

Footnote: cells marked "no substance-specific figure" mean the value is absent from our source library. We do not estimate dosage and we do not transfer a figure from another amide.

Neither published number is a stearamide dosage. The 0.05-0.12 wt% band is an erucamide and oleamide film figure, and the ladder in Table T3 belongs to the branched and linear C14-C18 alkanamides, FCM substance 1065 (CAS 85711-28-0), which carry their own specific migration limit of 5 mg/kg and are authorised for polyolefins only. Typical ranges for every additive family are collected under additive dosage levels in plastics.

Stearamide in polyethylene and polypropylene#

In polyethylene and polypropylene, stearamide competes with erucamide and oleamide for the same surface, and the choice turns on whether the compound needs a low coefficient of friction or resistance to blocking and sticking in the mould. Selection in polyolefin film practice runs on two axes, bloom speed and heat stability: oleamide covers fast bloom, erucamide covers blown film and BOPP, and stearamide and behenamide cover antiblock and release. The full film package, from antioxidant to antiblock, is on additives for polyethylene (PE).

Extrusion temperature sets the second limit. Polypropylene is processed hotter than low-density polyethylene, so the amide has to survive the melt without volatilising or discolouring, and the saturated C18 chain of stearamide ranks high in thermal stability on the supplier scales while carrying no measured decomposition temperature. Which amide suits LDPE, LLDPE and HDPE film is set out on slip agents for polyethylene film. No stearamide loading for these polymers is published, so this section describes roles and not quantities.

How much stearamide is used, and why one number is not enough#

Slip-amide use levels are set by film thickness, processing route and the surface operations that follow, not by the substance alone, which is why no single stearamide number is meaningful. Three variables move the use level, and they are listed below.

• Film gauge, because a thicker film needs a lower slip concentration than a thin one to reach the same coefficient of friction.
• Downstream surface operations, because excess amide at the surface makes corona treatment difficult and impairs printability and sealability.
• Article type, because the EFSA intended-use ladder for the C14-C18 alkanamides rises from 0.2 wt% in films to 1.0 wt% in injection-moulded articles.

The let-down ratio adds arithmetic without changing the target. A masterbatch dosed at any ratio is a delivery route, and a formulator specifies the additive level in the finished article, in wt% or ppm. A figure quoted without gauge, polymer and downstream process carries no usable information.

What Is Stearamide Used For? 4 Uses in Plastics#

Stearamide does 4 jobs in a plastics compound: it reduces surface friction, prevents film layers from blocking, releases parts from the mould and lubricates the melt internally. The 4 uses are listed below in the order recorded on its our sources.

• Slip, the reduction of film-to-film and film-to-metal friction by the bloomed surface layer.
• Antiblock, the prevention of adhesion between stacked or wound film layers.
• Release, the clean separation of a moulded part from the tool, the function the FDA regulates in 21 CFR 178.3860.
• Internal lubrication, the reduction of melt viscosity and of chain-to-chain friction during processing.

Antiblock and release in polyolefin packaging film#

In polyolefin packaging film, stearamide is used where layers must not block: the crystalline amide layer that forms at the surface reduces the real contact area between adjacent film faces. Blocking is the adhesion of two film faces pressed together in a wound reel or a stack, driven by van der Waals attraction across the contact area, so anything that roughens the surface at micrometre scale suppresses it. Mineral antiblock additives such as silica, talc and diatomaceous earth carry the main antiblock load, with the amide as an organic partner.

Winding is where the two functions meet. A film that leaves the die, cools on the rolls and is wound tight under tension has minutes rather than days before the layers are pressed together, which is why the antiblock system has to be at the surface and not merely in the melt. The complete additive set for a food-packaging film is on additives for packaging film.

Mold release and internal lubrication in moulded parts#

Stearamide also works inside the compound as a release and lubricant additive, which is why the FDA clears the saturated fatty acid amides under the heading "Release agents" rather than as slip agents. Release means the moulded part leaves the tool without sticking or tearing, and an internal release additive achieves it by migrating to the melt-metal interface. Amides sit alongside metal stearates and esters among the internal mold release agents.

Internal lubrication is the second half of the same behaviour. A lubricant that stays in the melt lowers viscosity and chain-to-chain friction, while one that reaches the metal surface reduces sticking, and the fatty amides do both, to degrees set by chain length. Ethylene bis stearamide takes the same role at a higher melting point, 135-146 °C (275-294.8 °F) against 107-109 °C (224.6-228.2 °F). Where the amide ends and the lubricant begins is explained on processing lubricants for plastics. No internal-to-external lubricant balance and no PVC loading for stearamide sits in our source library.

Where stearamide is not the right choice#

Stearamide is the wrong additive when the target is the lowest possible coefficient of friction on a finished film, when a fast bloom is needed before winding, or when the compound is a PVC lubricant package. Erucamide takes the first case, as the standard amide for PE, PP and BOPP film, closures and fibres. Oleamide takes the second, as the fastest-blooming amide of the four. Extrusion coating and cast film at high melt temperature go to the secondary amides, oleyl palmitamide and stearyl erucamide, and the PVC lubricant role goes to ethylene bis stearamide.

How Does Stearamide Perform? COF, Blocking and Thermal Stability#

Slip and antiblock performance is measured with four standard methods: coefficient of friction by ASTM D1894 or ISO 8295, blocking by ASTM D3354 or ISO 11502, haze by ASTM D1003 and amide surface content by liquid chromatography under ASTM D6953 or ASTM D6042. ASTM D1894 and ISO 8295 report a static coefficient of friction, the force needed to start a sled moving across the film, and a kinetic coefficient, the force to keep it moving. ASTM D3354 presses two film faces together and reports the load in grams needed to separate them, with 200 g as the usual maximum, while ASTM D1003 reports haze as a percentage, because a bloomed amide layer scatters light. ASTM D6953 is written for erucamide in polyethylene and ASTM D6042 for erucamide in polypropylene, so both carry an erucamide scope whatever the analyte.

Table T4. Performance indicators, test methods and the status of the stearamide value.

No measured COF, blocking-load or thermal-decomposition value for stearamide appears in the primary sources behind this page. Supplier literature ranks the substance qualitatively as slow-medium in migration and high in thermal stability, and a target COF of about 0.2 for polyolefin film is a supplier statement rather than a specification. ASTM D1894, ISO 8295 and ASTM D3354 are described on coefficient of friction and blocking of plastic film.

How Does Stearamide Interact with Antiblock, Antistatic and Other Additives?#

Stearamide shares the polymer surface with three other additive families, and each of them changes how much of it arrives there: silica antiblock adsorbs it, antistats compete with it and corona treatment moves it. Three interactions decide whether a stearamide package works, and they are listed below.

• Adsorption on synthetic silica, which takes up slip and antistatic additives on its high surface area and retards their migration.
• Competition with antistatic agents, because glycerol esters, ethoxylated amines and alkanolamides reach the same finite surface.
• Reaction with acidic additives and halogenated flame retardants, because amine and amide additives are basic.

Corona treatment closes the loop. Excess slip at the surface makes corona treatment difficult and impairs printability and sealability, so a corona-treated, printed and heat-sealed film carries an upper limit on amide dosage unrelated to friction. Slip and antistat compete for the same surface, which the hub on antistatic agents for plastics quantifies. The one published synergy belongs to a different amide: erucamide with silica gives a lower COF in polypropylene than either component alone.

What Is the Regulatory Status of Stearamide?#

Stearamide is REACH-registered, is not a Substance of Very High Concern, is not restricted under REACH Annex XVII, is authorised for EU food-contact plastics as FCM substance 306 without a specific migration limit, and is covered by the FDA release-agent clearance in 21 CFR 178.3860 (status 23 September 2026). Each entry appears below with its instrument and its reference number.

Table T5. Stearamide regulatory matrix, as of 23 September 2026.

Two cells carry a verification note instead of a status, and that is deliberate: this page states a status only where a primary instrument was read against CAS 124-26-5. Registration, the Candidate List and the Annexes are explained on REACH and plastic additives.

Is stearamide REACH registered, and is it an SVHC?#

Yes, stearamide is registered under REACH (Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006) with 9 active registrations, the first from 2012, and no, it is not a Substance of Very High Concern: it is absent from the Candidate List, from Annex XIV and from Annex XVII. The substance is also absent from the EU POPs Regulation (EU) 2019/1021.

Registration counts work as a rough proxy for European trade volume. Stearamide's 9 dossiers sit well below erucamide's 36, level with ethylene bis stearamide's 9, above behenamide's 7 and below the 15 recorded for commercial oleamide under the EC 931-801-1 entry. No REACH tonnage band appears here, because none was retrieved from the ECHA dissemination portal.

Is stearamide approved for food contact in the EU?#

Yes: stearamide is on the Union list of Regulation (EU) No 10/2011 as FCM substance 306 (Ref 88960) with no specific migration limit, so the generic SML of 60 mg/kg under Article 11(2) and the overall migration limit of 10 mg/dm² apply. For articles intended for infants and young children, the overall migration limit is expressed as 60 mg/kg instead of 10 mg/dm².

No specific migration limit is not the same as no limit, and the contrast inside the amide family shows why. The secondary amides oleyl palmitamide (FCM 622) and stearyl erucamide (FCM 587) and the branched and linear C14-C18 alkanamides (FCM 1065) each carry a specific migration limit of 5 mg/kg, twelve times stricter than the generic value that governs stearamide. Article 11(2), the generic SML and the overall migration limit are explained on EU 10/2011. The FCM and Ref numbers here were read from the retained text of Annex I as it stood on 31 December 2020 and are being re-checked against the current EUR-Lex consolidation.

Is stearamide FDA approved for food contact?#

Stearamide is cleared for US food contact through 21 CFR 178.3860, the release-agent section, which covers saturated fatty acid amides from animal, marine or vegetable fats and oils used in polymeric resins at quantities not exceeding good manufacturing practice. The same section names erucamide, oleyl palmitamide and stearyl erucamide, and its saturated-amide entry covers behenamide as well as stearamide.

Two other sections mention the same chemistry and are often quoted wrongly: 21 CFR 175.105 covers stearamide in adhesives, and 21 CFR 178.3910 lists stearic acid amide only as a surface lubricant for manufacturing metallic articles. Neither is a polymer-additive clearance, and no food-contact notification number for stearamide exists in our source library. How the 21 CFR sections differ, and why "FDA approved" is rarely the right phrase, is set out on FDA food contact rules for plastic additives (21 CFR).

Is stearamide listed under California Proposition 65?#

The Proposition 65 status of stearamide is not established on this page: our source library holds no entry for CAS 124-26-5 against the OEHHA list, and the Proposition 65 dates it does hold were checked against the archived 2019 list rather than the current one. The matrix cell therefore reads "status being verified" rather than "not listed", because an unchecked absence is not a finding.

Is Stearamide Safe? Health, Safety and Environmental Profile#

Stearamide has no harmonised hazard classification under the EU CLP Regulation (EC) No 1272/2008, and the companies that notified it to ECHA report it as not classified. Three statements define what is established about its health and environmental profile, and they are listed below.

• Classification: no harmonised entry in CLP Annex VI, and "not classified" in the PubChem notification aggregate.
• Regulatory concern: absent from the REACH Candidate List, from Annex XIV, from Annex XVII and from the POPs Regulation (EU) 2019/1021.
• Migration: authorised for EU food contact as FCM 306 without a specific migration limit, so the generic 60 mg/kg and 10 mg/dm² limits govern what may reach food.

Absence of classification is not a toxicological dossier. No LD50, no NOAEL and no ecotoxicity value for stearamide appears in the primary sources behind this page, and none is estimated here. The amides are mostly unclassified as a group, with lauric diethanolamide (Eye Dam. 1, H318) and stearyl diethanolamine (aquatic toxicity, H400 and H410) as the classified exceptions, so the group pattern does not transfer automatically to every member. Blooming, extraction and the models that predict them are covered on additive migration in plastics.

What Are the Alternatives to Stearamide?#

The 4 alternatives to stearamide in a polyolefin compound are erucamide, oleamide, behenamide and ethylene bis stearamide, and the choice turns on bloom speed, melting point and whether the target is low friction or clean release. The 5 amides are compared below on identity, thermal behaviour, food-contact status and typical role.

Table T6. Stearamide compared with the 4 alternative amides.

Footnote: melting points are PubChem values; the bloom-speed and thermal-stability rankings are supplier classifications rather than measurements and have to be checked against each producer's technical data sheet. Where no specific SML is listed, the generic 60 mg/kg SML and the 10 mg/dm² overall migration limit apply.

One selection axis is missing from the table because it is not published for stearamide: the loading needed to reach a target coefficient of friction. A side-by-side selection matrix sits on erucamide vs oleamide vs behenamide.

Stearamide vs erucamide#

Erucamide is the choice when the target is a low coefficient of friction on film, and stearamide is the choice when the target is antiblock or clean release: erucamide's C22 unsaturated chain stays mobile at the surface, while stearamide's saturated C18 chain crystallises. Erucamide carries 36 active REACH registrations against stearamide's 9, which reflects its share of the film market.

Measured surface values exist for erucamide and not for stearamide. Gubała and colleagues measured 4 nm erucamide bilayers on polypropylene fibre surfaces in their 2020 study in the Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, and Dulal and colleagues (RMIT University, CSIRO and Coca-Cola Amatil, 2017) found that 15.7 µg/cm² of surface erucamide is needed to reduce cap application torque in HDPE closures. Neither figure transfers to stearamide. Erucamide melts at 75-80 °C (167-176 °F) against stearamide's 107-109 °C (224.6-228.2 °F), and both hold EU authorisation without a specific migration limit.

Stearamide vs oleamide#

Oleamide and stearamide are both C18 amides, but the single double bond in oleamide drops its melting point to 76 °C (168.8 °F) and makes it the fastest-blooming and least heat-stable slip amide, while stearamide melts at 107-109 °C (224.6-228.2 °F) and blooms slowly. Commercial oleamide grades are specified at about 68-76 °C (154.4-168.8 °F), and oleamide is the standard fast-bloom amide for LDPE and LLDPE blown film and bags.

The food-contact difference decides the compliance work. Oleamide is not named in 21 CFR 178.3860, so the two amides differ in US food-contact status as well as in bloom speed: stearamide falls inside the saturated-amide entry of the release-agent section, while oleamide appears only in 21 CFR 175.105 for adhesives and in 21 CFR 178.3910 as a metal-article surface lubricant. In the EU both are authorised without a specific migration limit, as FCM 335 and FCM 306.

Stearamide vs behenamide: closures and high-temperature compounds#

Behenamide is the saturated amide one step longer than stearamide: its C22 chain melts at 110-113 °C (230-235.4 °F), blooms even more slowly and carries the highest thermal stability of the primary amides, which is why closures use behenamide rather than stearamide. Behenamide is the C22 saturated amide one chain length above stearamide, with CAS 3061-75-4 and 7 active REACH registrations against stearamide's 9.

One study quantifies the closure case. Dulal and colleagues (RMIT University, CSIRO and Coca-Cola Amatil, 2017) measured the surface amount needed to reduce cap application torque in HDPE closures and found 1.7 µg/cm² for behenamide against 15.7 µg/cm² for erucamide, a factor of about 9 in favour of the saturated C22 amide. Neither value is a stearamide measurement. Cap torque, surface amount and amide odour are covered on slip agents for caps and closures.

Stearamide vs EBS and the other bis-amides#

Bis-amides join two fatty chains through an ethylenediamine bridge, which raises the melting point and pushes the additive from the surface into the melt: EBS melts at 135-146 °C (275-294.8 °F) and works as a lubricant and dispersant, while EBO is a slow internal slip for PVC film. Ethylene bis oleamide (EBO, CAS 110-31-6) is authorised in the EU as FCM 251 without a specific migration limit, and 21 CFR 178.3860 allows it only in PVC film at a maximum of 0.055 mg per square inch, the one numeric limit in the amide part of that section.

The bis-amide belongs to a different additive family on this site. EBS is classified here under lubricants rather than under slip agents, and Baerlocher classes it as an external PVC lubricant with a melting range of 138-144 °C (280.4-291.2 °F), narrower than the 135-146 °C (275-294.8 °F) PubChem range for the pure substance.

Who Manufactures Stearamide? Grades and Suppliers#

Stearamide is produced by oleochemical additive makers rather than by petrochemical companies: PMC Biogenix sells it in the Kemamide line and Croda in the Crodamide line. The named grades are Kemamide S and Crodamide S. More producers, their locations and their brand lines are in the directory of slip agent and erucamide suppliers.

Table T7. Stearamide producers and grades recorded in our source library.

Footnote: this table lists only producers recorded in our source library with a named stearamide grade. It is not a complete market list.

Buyers should ask each supplier for the technical data sheet, the safety data sheet and the melting-range specification basis, because commercial grades are specified at 98-105 °C (208.4-221 °F) rather than at the pure-substance melting point of 107-109 °C (224.6-228.2 °F). We publish no stearamide price because none is sourced; price guides for the additives that do have one are indexed under plastic additive prices. Croda sold the majority of its Performance Technologies and Industrial Chemicals business to Cargill in July 2022 for about GBP 667 million, and the current owner of the Crodamide brand is being verified.

Stearamide masterbatch and powder grades#

Stearamide reaches the extruder in two forms: as a powder or bead dosed directly into the compound, and as an additive masterbatch carried in the base polymer. The substance is a colourless to beige solid or powder, and slip, antiblock and antistatic additives are sold mainly as masterbatch rather than as the neat chemical, because a free-flowing pellet doses more reproducibly than a powder.

Masterbatch shifts the dosing problem without removing it. How a carrier resin, a let-down ratio and a dispersion check are chosen is explained on additive masterbatch, and a specification states the additive level in the finished article, not the masterbatch addition rate. No let-down figure for a stearamide masterbatch is published.

How Do Fatty Acid Amides Fit into the Slip Additive Family?#

Stearamide is the saturated C18 member of the primary fatty amides, the largest of the 4 amide sub-classes that make up the migrating half of the slip additive family. The other half does not migrate at all. Ultra-high-molecular-weight PDMS masterbatch and siloxane-grafted polyolefins deliver slip from a silicone phase, and particulate slip uses spherical silicone resin (refractive index 1.42, particle size 1.8-10.5 µm) and crosslinked PMMA beads to hold film faces mechanically apart. Because these routes do not bloom, they do not interfere with corona treatment, printing or lamination, which is the trade-off against the lower cost of an amide.

Migration of slip amides into food: what is known and what is not#

Migration is the point of a slip amide, which is why the food-contact question is how much reaches the food rather than whether the additive moves at all. Amides also move inside an article, not only out of it. Sankhe and Hirt mapped erucamide with synchrotron FT-IR in 2003 and found substantial migration from a 1 wt% LLDPE layer into an adjacent polyolefin plastomer layer, with nearly uniform concentration profiles across 50 µm coextruded films, so a slip additive does not stay in the layer it was dosed into.

The measurement that would answer the question for stearamide does not exist in public. No published specific migration measurement for the substance appears in the primary sources behind this page, so the applicable limits are the generic ones: 60 mg/kg under Article 11(2) of Regulation (EU) No 10/2011 and 10 mg/dm² overall. What has actually been measured in packaged food is summarised on chemicals migrating from plastic food packaging.

Non-plastics uses of stearamide#

Most page-one results for the bare term "stearamide" are laboratory-reagent listings, fragrance-register entries and corrosion-inhibitor product pages, none of which describes a plastics additive. The name also appears in two US regulations outside polymer additives, 21 CFR 175.105 for adhesives and 21 CFR 178.3910 for surface lubricants used in manufacturing metallic articles. PlasticAdditives.net covers additives used in plastics only, so these contexts are named for orientation and are not covered further, and no performance, cosmetic or biomedical claim is made for any of them.

What is the melting point of stearamide?#

Stearamide melts at 107-109 °C (224.6-228.2 °F) as a pure substance, while commercial slip grades are specified at 98-105 °C (208.4-221 °F) because they carry the chain distribution of the fatty feedstock. Both figures describe the same chemical, and only the specification basis differs.

Is stearamide a wax?#

Stearamide is a waxy solid but not a wax in the chemical sense: a wax is an ester or a hydrocarbon, while stearamide is an amide, and the trade name "EBS wax" refers to ethylene bis stearamide, not to stearamide. The material is supplied as a colourless to beige solid or powder, which also answers the "stearamide powder" query.

Does stearamide need an SDS?#

Yes: suppliers provide a safety data sheet for stearamide as for any traded chemical, even though it carries no harmonised CLP classification and notifiers report it as not classified. The safety data sheet is also where the grade-specific melting range is stated.