Topic: Soaps

By: Kanav Malhotra

 Acknowledgement

In the accomplishment of this project successfully, I would

like to thank my chemistry teacher Miss. Trupti Mandge
whose valuable guidance has helped me patch this project with
great success. Her suggestions have served as the major
contributor towards the completion of the project.

Then I would like to thank my parents and friends who have

helped me in completion of various phases of this project.
 CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the project titled “Soaps and

Detergents” was completed under my guidance and supervision
by Kanav Malhotra, Roll No ____________, a student of class
XII, Modern Delhi Public School, Sector-87, Faridabad within
the stipulated time as prescribed by CBSE.

(Teacher’s Signature)

Modern Delhi Public School

Sector-87, Faridabad

Haryana
 Preface
Soaps and detergents remove dirt and grease from skin and
clothes. But all soaps are not equally effective in their
cleaning action. Soaps are the Na/K salts of higher fatty acids
such as palmitic acid, stearic acid and oleic acid.

The cleansing action of soaps depend upon the solubility of

the long alkyl chain in grease and that of the –COONa or the –
COOK part of water. Whenever soap is applied on a dirty wet
cloth, the non polar alkyl group dissolves in grease while the
polar –COONa part dissolves in water. In the manner, an
emulsion is formed between grease and water which appears
as foam.

The washing ability of soap depends on foaming capacity, as

well as the water used in cleaning. The salts of Ca and Mg
salts on their foaming capacity.
 Contents
 Introduction
 History of soaps
 Commercial preparation
 Introduction to Experiment
 Objective and theory
 Procedure
 Observation Table
 Result
 Bibliography
 Introduction
Soap is an anionic surfactant used in conjunction with water.
Soap consists of sodium or potassium salts of fatty acids,
which is used to remove dirt and germs from a surface. Soaps
are obtained by reacting common oils or fats with a strong
alkaline in a process known as Saponification. The fats are
hydrolyzed by the base, yielding alkali salts of fatty acids
(crude soaps) and glycerol.

Its molecules have a long hydrocarbon chain that has a

negative charged head. Its non polar hydrocarbon chain
doesn’t interact with water molecules that form micelles. The
soap micelles repel each other and stay dispersed in water.
New micelles form that have soiling molecules in the center of
the colloidal suspension so that dirt gets attached to them
and can be rinsed away.
 History of soaps
Earliest recorded evidence of production of soap like
materials date back to around 2800 BC in ancient Babylon. A
formula of soap consisting of water, alkali and cassia oil was
written on Babylonian clay tablet around 2200 BC.

The Ebbers papyrus (Egypt, 1550 BC) indicates the ancient

Egyptians bathed regularly and combined animal and vegetable
oils with alkaline salts to create soap like substance. Egyptian
documents mention soap like substance was used in the
preparation of wool for weaving.

In the region of Nab Nidus (556-539 BC), a recipe for soap

consisted of uhulu {ashes}, cypress {oil} and sesame {seed oil}
for washing the stones for the servant girls.

The word soap, Latin for soap, first appears in Pliny the
elder’s historic naturalism, which discusses the manufacture
of soap from tallow and ashes, but the only use, is it as
pomade for hair.

Popular belief claims soap takes its name from a supposed

Mount Sapo where animal sacrifices were supposed to have
taken.
 Preparation of soap
In cold process and hot process soap making heat may be
required for Saponification.

Cold process soap making takes place at a sufficient

temperature to ensure the liquefaction of the fat being used.

Hot process soap can be used right away because the alkali
and fat saponify more quickly at the higher temperature used
in hot process soap making.

Hot Process

In the hot process method, alkali and fat are boiled together
at 80-100°C until saponifiction occurs, which the soap maker
can determine by taste or by eye.

After Saponification has occurred, the soap is sometimes

precipitated from the solution by adding salt and the excess
liquid drained off. The hot, soft soap is then saponed into a
mold.

Cold process

A cold processed soap maker first looks up the Saponification

value of the fats being used on a Saponification chart, which
is then used to calculate the apt. amount of alkali. Excess
unreacted alkali in the soap will result in a very high pH and
can burn or irritate skin. Not enough alkali and the soap are
greasy.

The alkali is dissolved in water. Then oils are heated or melted

if they are solid at room temperature. Once both have cooled
to approx 100-110F and are not more than 10F apart, they may
be combined. This alkali-fat mixture is stirred until “trace”.
There are varying levels of trace. After much stirring, the
mixture turns to a consistency of a thin pudding, “trace”
corresponds roughly to viscosity. Essential and fragrance oils
are added to light trace.
Commercial production
of soaps
The most popular soap making process today is the cold
process method, where fats such as olive oil react with strong
alkaline solution, while some soap makers use the historical
hot process.

Handmade soap differs from industrial soap in that usually an

excess of fat is sometimes used to consume the alkali and in
that glycerin soap is used and not the pure detergent.

Often ensollients such as jojoba oil or shea butter is added

“at trace”, after most of the oils have saponified, so that
they remain un-reacted in the finished soap.
 Experiment
Objective: to compare the foaming capacity of various soaps.

Requirements:

 Five 100ml conical flask

 Five test tube and stand
 100ml measuring cylinder
 Weighing machine and stopwatch
 Five different soap samples
 Distilled water and tap water

Procedure:

1. Take five 100ml conical flasks and number them 1, 2, 3, 4,

5. Put 16ml of water in each flask and 8g of soap.
2. Warm the contents to get the solution
3. Take five test tubes, add 1ml soap solution to 3ml of
water. (Repeat the process for each soap solution in
different test tube.)
4. Close the mouth of the test tube and shake vigorously
for a minute. Do the same for all the test tube with equal
force.
5. Start the timer immediately and notice the repeat of
disappearance of 2mm of froth.
 Observations:

The following outcomes were noticed at the end of the

experiment.

Test tube No. Volume of Volume of Time taken

soap solution water added for
disappearance
of 2mm froth
1. Dettol 8ml 16ml 11’42’’
2. Lux 8ml 16ml 3’28’’
3. Tetmosol 8ml 16ml 5’10’’
4. Savlon 8ml 16ml 15’32’’
5. Cinthol 8ml 16ml 9’40’’

Result:

The cleaning capacity of soap taken in order:

Savlon>Dettol>Cinthol>Tetmosol>Lux

From this experiment we can infer that Savlon has the

highest foaming capacity, in other words, highest cleaning
capacity.
 Bibliography

Internet Source

 www.wikipedia.com
 www.google.com
 www.slideshare.com

Book

NCERT Chemistry Class XII