Lab Saponification: Making Soap

Background:
An important characteristic of carbon is their tendency to form long chains. Carbons like to bond
to each other, making structures, like the one below, possible.

OH

palmitic acid this is a long chained fatty acid, found primarily in vegetables and nuts. This is
saturated as there are no carbon to carbon double bonds. There are as many hydrogens
attached to the carbons as possible.
O
The series of carbons and hydrogens are the fat and the R C OH is the acid. This is a
carboxylic acid as the hydrogen will break from comes off and is found in water as H +.
Soap is produced by reacting of a long chained fatty acid and a strong base. Normally an oil
and lye are mixed together and heated. The result is an alcohol, which evaporated while you
are cooking the mixture and a long chained fat with a sodium ion replacing the acidic hydrogen.
H

OH

Na

+ NaOH
+ H 2O

fatty acid + strong base soap + water

The first soaps were created by cooking animal fat with campfire ash. Animal fat is the source
of fatty acid and the wood ash is another strong base, potassium hydroxide, KOH.

Procedure:
1. All observation must be recorded on a blank sheet of notebook paper with a detailed
description identifying exactly what is being observed.
2. Place 10.0 grams of a fatty acid in a 600 ml beaker.
3. In a 250 ml beaker mix 12.5 ml of ethanol 12.5 ml of deionized water.
ethanol is highly flammable

4. Add 5 grams of NaOH pellets to the 250 ml beaker and stir until dissolved.
work quickly yet safely in measuring your NaOH, it is constantly absorbing water from the air

5. Wet a cotton swab with the NaOH and touch it to a strip of pH paper. Record your
observations.
NaOH is highly caustic, if you come in contact with NaOH rinse immediately

6. Add the NaOH solution to the fatty acid and stir.

7. Place this 600 ml beaker on a hot plate, set to medium/low heat.

8. Stir solution for 20-30 minutes. Until the smell of fat disappears and the oil dissolves
forming a homogenous solution.
9. Cool the mixture in a cold water bath.
10. Use the Buchner funnel and filter paper to filter out your soap.
11. Add 300 ml of a saturated NaCl solution, stir gently.
12. Touch a strip of pH paper to your soap and record your results.
13. Rinse your soap with two separate 5 ml aliquots of dilute HCl.
14. Spot a drop of the dilute HCl on the pH paper and record your results.
15. Rinse your soap with two separate 20 ml aliquots of deionized water.
16. Again, touch a strip of pH paper to your soap and record your results.
17. Place 1.5 grams of your soap in a beaker label soap solution and dissolve the soap with
75 ml of deionized water.
18. Clean and label six test tubes; A, B, C, D, E, F.
19. Add the following to the indicated test tubes.
a few drops of mineral oil
a.
10 ml of distilled water and a few drops of mineral oil
b.
1.0 ml of 1.0 M CaCl2
c.
1.0 ml of 1.0 M MgCl2
d.
1.0 ml of 1.0 M FeCl3
e.
1.0 ml of tap water
f.
20. Add 10 ml of your soap solution to each test tube.
21. Place a piece of Para film over the top of each test tube and shake.

Name:____________
Observations:

Concluding Questions:
1. Why is the pH of the NaOH above 7?

2. Why is the pH of the HCl below 7?

3. Why are you adding HCl to the soap?

4. What do you think you produced in the test tubes labeled C E?

5. Why do you need to use a saturated solution of NaCl to wash the soap you just made?
Why not just use deionized water?
6. There is a common name for what you produced in the test tubes labeled C E, what is
this name?