3.

0 How Detergent Reacts With Water

Detergent (sodium alkyl sulphate) is used to break and remove grease and
grime [ CITATION Chr18 \l 17417 ] . Detergent are more likely to be a mixture of a
synthetic chemicals in liquid solution that able to remove dirt from porous surfaces
like fabrics and non-porous surfaces such as metals and plastics. The most
important ingredient in detergents are chemicals called surfactants, the abbreviation
from the words surface active agents [ CITATION Chr18 \l 17417 ]. Surfactants are
compound that lower the surface tension between two liquids, between a gas and a
liquid or between a liquid and a solid.

Water has a surface tension, a measure of how difficult it is to break the

surface of a liquid. At the interface between water and air is an ordered arrangement
of water molecules, hydrogen-bonded to one another and to the water below, but not
to the air above. This asymmetry gives water an unusually high surface tension
[ CITATION Nei17 \l 17417 ] . To make water wash better, we have to reduce its surface
tension so it wets things more uniformly and this surfactant in detergents works to
improve water’s ability to wet things. Surfactants contains a polar head group and a
non-polar tail group [ CITATION Nei17 \l 17417 ].

The hydrophilic head makes attaches itself to the water while the hydrophobic
tail attaches itself to the solid or fibre and onto the soil When doing the [ CITATION
Dav99 \l 17417 ] washing, the surfactant mixed with water and the oil loving end of the
surfactant will start to attach to the dirt [ CITATION Chr18 \l 17417 ]. The motion that we
put will breaks the dirt and grease into smaller pieces so that it will be easier to
remove. When rinse the fabrics, water molecules will move and attached to the water
loving ends of the surfactant molecules [ CITATION Chr18 \l 17417 ]. Lastly, the water
molecule will pull the surfactant and dirt away from the fabrics. The other ingredients
in the detergent such as optical brighteners which makes the fabrics gleam,
enzymes likes amylases, proteases and lipases which help to break up and remove
food from fabrics. Besides, perfume consists of ethyl alcohol to give fragrance to the

fabrics [ CITATION Chr18 \l 17417 ].

References
Davidsohn, A. (1999, July 26). Soap and detergent. Retrieved from Encyclopaedia
Britannica: https://www.britannica.com/science/soap
Neil A. Campbell, L. A. (2017). Biology A Global Approach. New York: Pearson Education,
Inc.
Woodford, C. (2018, June 11). ExplainThatStuff. Retrieved from ExplainThatStuff Web site:
https://www.explainthatstuff.com/detergents.html