Characteristic

Lithium acetate (CH₃COOLi) is a salt of lithium and acetic acid.

Chemical formula:C₂H₃LiO₂

Molar mass: 65.98 g·mol⁻¹

Appearance: crystal

Density: 1.26 g/cm³

Melting point: 286 °C (547 °F; 559 K)

Solubility in water:45.0 g/100 mL

Magnetic susceptibility (χ):−34.0·10⁻⁶ cm³/mol

Application

Lithium acetate is used in the laboratory as buffer for gel electrophoresis of DNA and RNA. It has a lower electrical conductivity and can be run at higher speeds than can gels made from TAE buffer (5-30V/cm as compared to 5-10V/cm).

Lithium boric acid or sodium boric acid are usually preferable to lithium acetate or TAE when analyzing smaller fragments of DNA (less than 500 bp) due to the higher resolution of borate-based buffers in this size range as compared to acetate buffers.

Lithium acetate is also used to permeabilize the cell wall of yeast for use in DNA transformation. It is believed that the beneficial effect of LiOAc is caused by its chaotropic effect; denaturing DNA, RNA and proteins.