Why fats remain solids at room temperature while oils are liquids at room temperature?

Answer 1

Because that's the definition of "fat" as opposed to "oil". Fats are solid at room temperature, oils are liquid at room temperature. Chemically they're very simliar compounds, but fats tend to have saturated long chain fatty acids, while the fatty acids in oils are either short chains or unsaturated.

Answer 2

Lipids (the term for fats and oils), is a glycerol molecule (propane-1,2,3-triol) attached to three fatty acid molecules via ester links

..............................O

..............................

An ester link is R1-O-C-R2

In lipids R1 would be glycerol and R2 would be a fatty acid (a saturated or unsaturated carboxylic acid chain) they can be between 4 and 24 carbons long but they are typically between 16 and 18.

Common examples are;

Palmitic acid - CH3(CH2)14COOH

Oleic acid - CH3(CH2)7CH=CH(CH2)7COOH

All fats and oils contain 3 of these but never three of the same. The Glycerol fatty acid complex is called a triglyceride.

The fatty acids that combine with glycerol to produce fats have less double bonds than the ones that bond that produce oils. Having a lot of C=C distorts the structure enough to cause noticeably less van der vaal bonds to be made between molecule's. This is what causes oils to be liquids and fats to be oils.

see related links for explanitory diagrams

Answer 3

at room temperature fats are liquids and oils are sollids

Answer 4

Fat and oil are two different substances. As a result, they have two different forms when they are both at room temperature.

Answer 5

both are fats and each contain an alcohol named glycerol. the difference is that they have different chemical structures depending on the temperature.

Answer 6

The melting point depends on the chemical composition of a material. Olive oil contain more monounsaturated fats.