1. Food & Healthcare Ingredients

• Acidity Regulator: Sodium citrate helps maintain the desired pH balance in food products, preventing excessive acidity or alkalinity, which can impact taste and texture.
• Emulsifier: It helps stabilize emulsions by keeping oil and water-based ingredients mixed, like in cheese making, allowing cheese to melt evenly without becoming greasy.
• Preservative: Sodium citrate helps prevent microbial growth and oxidation, extending the shelf life of perishable items.
• Flavor Enhancer: It contributes a mildly salty, slightly tart taste to food products, making it a good choice for beverages and processed foods.
• Tartness: Sodium citrate is used in food, including beverages, to add or adjust tartness. It's a salt of citric acid, so it retains the sour taste but is more stable and less harsh than pure citric acid. In beverages, it helps balance the tartness of citric acid, making the drink smoother and more palatable.

2. Pharmaceuticals

• Alkalinizing agent: Sodium citrate functions as an alkalinizing agent by neutralizing excess acid in the blood and urine. When absorbed, it's metabolized to produce bicarbonate, which then buffers excess hydrogen ions in the blood, raising its pH. This also increases the pH of the urine, making it more alkaline.
• Anti-coagulant: Sodium citrate acts as an anticoagulant by chelating (binding) calcium ions in the blood. Calcium is a crucial cofactor in the coagulation cascade, and by removing it, citrate effectively inhibits blood clotting.
• pH Regulation: Sodium citrate acts as a buffer, meaning it can resist changes in pH when acidic or basic substances are added to a solution.

3. Personal care

• pH Adjustment: Sodium citrate acts as a buffer, helping to maintain the optimal pH of skincare formulations, such as cleansers, exfoliants, and moisturizers. This is crucial for ensuring the product's effectiveness and preventing skin irritation.
• Chelating Agent: It can bind to metal ions in the water, preventing them from interacting with other ingredients and potentially affecting the product's stability and efficacy.
• Mild Preservative: Sodium citrate can inhibit the growth of bacteria and other microorganisms, extending the shelf life of personal care products.

4. Cleaning & Disinfectants

• Water Softening: Sodium citrate helps soften water by binding to calcium and magnesium ions, which can interfere with the cleaning action of detergents.
• pH adjuster: Sodium citrate, a salt of citric acid, acts as a pH adjuster in cleaning by acting as a buffer, helping to maintain a stable pH within a desired range. It does this by reacting with acids or bases in a solution to neutralize them, preventing large swings in pH.

5. Performance Chemicals

• Dispersant for Nanoparticles: Sodium citrate effectively disperses nanoparticles, particularly in the synthesis of inorganic-organic composites. It stabilizes suspensions of calcium phosphate (CaP) by adsorbing citrate ions onto the CaP nanocrystals, increasing their negative surface charge and promoting repulsion between particles.
• Reducing Agent: Sodium citrate acts as a reducing agent in the synthesis of various metal nanoparticles, including silver (Ag) and platinum (Pt) nanoparticles. It helps reduce metal ions to their zero-valent state, leading to the formation of nanoparticles.