UNIVERSITI SAINS MALAYSIA

SCHOOL OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

EKC 107 ORGANIC CHEMISTRY

ORGANIC CHEMISTRY LAB

LABORATORY COURSE
EXPERIMENT 2: SAPONIFICATION

NAME OF STUDENTS: WONG PEI YEE (158198)

PRAVIN A/L PARAMESWAEAN (157996)
HAREISHNATH A/L GOBINATH (159353)

INSTRUCTOR : PROF. MADYA DR. DEREK CHAN JUINN CHIEH

INTRODUCTION
The preparation of soap from fat and lye has been, historically, a
household task. Only in the last century has the making of soap become a
commercial undertaking. Our ancestors made soap by boiling animal fats with
the lye obtained from leaching wood ashes. In this experiment, we will make
soap by the same process, called saponification, but will use modern
ingredients.
In the process of making soap, animal fat, which is a triglyceride, is
hydrolyzed by the action of a strong base, such as sodium hydroxide, and heat.
The resulting products are soap and glycerol.

THEORY
A process by which lipid (triglycerides) are reacted with sodium or
potassium hydroxide to produce glycerol and a fatty acid salt, called ‘soap’.
Lipids that contain fatty acid ester linkages can undergo hydrolysis. This
reaction is catalyzed by a strong acid or base. Saponification is the alkaline
hydrolysis of the fatty acid esters.
An example of the reaction is:

Fatty acids are the components of fats and oils that are used in making soap.
They are weak carboxylic acids composed of two parts:
A carboxylic acid group consisting of one hydrogen (H) atom, two oxygen (O)
atoms, and one carbon (O) atoms, plus the hydrocarbon chain attached to the
carboxylic acid group. Generally, it is made up of a long straight chain of
carbon (O) atoms each carrying two hydrogen (H) atoms.

An alkali is a soluble salt of an alkali metal like sodium or potassium.

Originally, the alkalis used in soap making were obtained from the ashes of
plants, but they are now made commercially. Today, the term alkali describes a
substance that chemically is a base (the opposite of an acid) and that reacts with
and neutralizes an acid.
The common alkalis used in soap making are sodium hydroxide (NaOH), also
called caustic soda; and potassium hydroxide (KOH), also called caustic potash.
Saponification of fats and oils is the most widely used soap making process.
This method involves heating fats and oils and reacting them with a liquid alkali
to produce soap and water (neat soap) plus glycerine as shown below:
The other major soap making process is the neutralization of fatty acids with an
alkali. Fats and oils are hydrolyzed (split) with a high-pressure steam to yield
crude fatty acids and glycerine. The fatty acids are then purified by distillation
and neutralized with an alkali to produce soap and water (neat soap). When the
alkali is sodium hydroxide, a sodium soap is formed. Sodium soaps are “hard”
soaps. When the alkali is potassium hydroxide, a potassium soap is formed.
Potassium soaps are softer and are found in some liquid hand soaps and shaving
creams.
The carboxylate end of soap molecule is attracted to water. It is called the
hydrophilic (water-loving) end. The hydrocarbon chain is attracted to oil and
grease and repelled by water. It is known as the hydrophobic (water-hating) end.
Soap works by helping greasy dirt particles dissolve in water. The soap
molecules have a hydrophilic “head group” the carboxylate anion, which
interacts well with water and a long, greasy hydrophobic “tail” which interacts
well with non-polar grease. When soap molecules are dissolved in water they
organize themselves into clusters called micelles with all of the hydrophobic
tails pointed inward and the hydrophilic head groups pointed out into the
surrounding water.
When soap molecules help dissolve grease, the hydrophobic tails become
associated with grease and the soap molecules surround it, forming a micelle
around the grease and bringing it into the water.

GLASSWARE AND CHEMICALS

Glassware:
Weight, water bath, cone flask 250ml, measuring flask, pipette, spatula, filter
paper, beaker 100ml and aluminium foil.
Chemicals:
Oil, sodium hydroxide, ethanol 95%, solution of sodium chloride, calcium
chloride, trisodium phosphate.
Experiment
Experiment 1: Preparation of soap
1. Solution A was prepared by dissolving 0.25g NaOH in the mixture 2.5 ml
95% ethanol.
 2. 0.25g oil or vegetable fat was added in 50ml conical flask. Solution A
was poured into the flask.
3. The flask was stirred and then keep in hot water [temperature close to
80°C]. In order to reduce the evaporation, the flask was closed with
aluminium foil.
4. The mixture was stirred constantly and avoided spattering. After 20
minutes, a waxy solid formed. If you noticed that half of the mixture
volume has decreased before the 20 min mark, 2 ml of 95% ethanol was
added to replace it. Then, the mixture was boiled again for about 5
minutes.
5. 4.0 ml sodium chloride solution was added into mixture in the conical
flask. The mixture was stirred thoroughly while cooling with the running
water along the conical flask.
6. The saponification mixture was filtered using filter paper and filter
funnel. The mixture was washed with 5.0 ml distills water to eliminate
the remaining of NaOH from the soap. Finally, the soap was dried.

Experiment 2: Reaction of soap

1. After washing, 0.1g soap that have prepared was taken and put into 10 ml
measuring cylinder. 3.0 ml distills water was added into the cylinder. Put
our thumb over the opening of the cylinder and the mixture was shaken
well for 1 minutes. The height of produced foam was measured.
2. Then, 5-10 drops of 4% solution of calcium chloride was added into the
mixture of the soap. The mixture was shaken for about 1 minutes and
leave it for a while. The effect on the bubbles caused by addition of
calcium chloride was observed.
3. 0.5g trinatrium phosphate was added and the cylinder was shaken for 1
minutes. All the observation was recorded.
RESULTS
Experiment: Saponification
Analysis Observation/Explanation
1. Soap + 3.0 ml distill water After added 3.0 ml of diatll water and
shake it for 1 minutes, the foam forms
up to the height of 1.6 cm.

2. Add 5-10 drops of 4% solution of After added 5-10 drops of 4%

calcium chloride solution of calcium chloride and
shake it for 1 minutes, the foam is
gone and white precipitate forms.

3. Add 0.5g trinatrium phosphate After added 0.5g trinatrium phosphate

and shake it for 1 minutes, white
cloudy solution form.

DISCUSSION

There are some errors in experiment 1. Firstly, the aluminium foil is not tightly
enough and caused the evaporation of ethanol. This will affect the accuracy of
the experiment. The suggestion to get the accuracy of this experiment is tie an
vulcanised rubber band to make the aluminium can more tightly to prevent the
evaporation of ethanol.
QUESTION
1. Explain why sodium hydroxide is dissolved into an alcohol (Ethanol)
before it is used to catalyse the saponification reaction?

If fat is mixed with aqueous NaOH without ethanol, the two components will
form a two phase system. Chemical reaction will only occur at the contact
surfaces of two components and it will be very slow process. Hence, sodium
hydroxide will have dissolved into the ethanol before the process of
saponification started because ethanol is less polar than water so it helps to
dissolve the non-polar fat. Therefore, the rate of reaction of saponification will
be faster.

2. What is the role of using natrium chloride in soap saponification?

Common salt such as natrium chloride is added to precipitate out all the soap
from the aqueous solution. Adding of common salt such as natrium chloride to
soap solution decreases the solubility of soap due to which all the soap
precipitates out from the solution in the solid form. This process is called salting
out of soap. When we add salt which is natrium chloride, it gets ionised in water
and the natrium ions causes the natrium ions of soap to combine with the fatty
acid ions and separate as solid soap. This helps in complete removal of soap
from the reaction mixture.

3. In your opinion, how the soap making steps above can be further
improved?

Firstly, only tie the aluminium foil on the mouth of cylinder is not enough tight
so we should put an vulcanised rubber band around the aluminium foil to give it
more tightly to prevent the evaporation of ethanol. Secondly, we also can put
the rubber stopper at the mouth of cylinder to avoid the mixture spreads out.

CONCLUSION
For Experiment 1, a waxy solid formed. The waxy solid is soap. For experiment
2, when the soap and distill water mixed together, the foam formed and its
height is 1.6 cm. When soap and 4% solution of calcium chloride are mixed
together, foam is gone and white precipitate is formed. When 0.5g trinatrium
phosphate is added, white cloudy solution formed.

REFERENCE
1. http://www.chemistryexplained.com/Ru-Sp/Soap.html
2. https://www.thoughtco.com/how-dos-soap-clean-606146
3. https://chem.libretexts.org/Ancillary_Materials/Exemplars_and_Cas
e_Studies/Exemplars/Sports_Physiology_and_Health/Soap_(Exempla
r)
4. https://findanyanswer.com/why-is-nacl-added-to-soap