Oil soluble scavengers for sulfides and mercaptans

This invention relates to chemical compositions which are metal salts of carboxylic acids herein described, that are soluble in hydrocarbon oils and are used to inactivate odor producing sulfhydryl compounds that are present in hydrocarbon oils or other organic materials, in mixtures containing these materials, and in compositions which come in contact with these materials. This invention provides oil soluble sulfhydryl compound scavengers which are salt compositions of the formula:wherein M is a metal ion whose sulfide salt is less than 0.1% soluble in water, n is 2 or 3, x is an integer from 1 to n, and R a hydrocarbyl radical containing from about 4 to about 19 carbon atoms, or mixture of these compositions.A method is also provided to control odors produced by sulfhydryl compounds wherein the he said sulfhydryl compounds are contacted with the metal salts described above.