“A STUDY OF THE PREPARATION OF SOAP USING

COCONUT OIL”

A PROJECT WORK SUBMITTED FOR THE PARTIAL

FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE GRADE
12 SCIENCE IN CHEMISTRY

By

Amrit Kumar Mishra

Grade 12

Exam Symbol No: 14900476

Registration No: 795490050059

Tilottama Secondary School

National Education Board (NEB)

Tilottama-2, Rupandehi, Nepal

Date: 2079/10/18

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 CERTIFICATE OF APPROVAL

The project work entitled “A STUDY OF PREPARATION OF SOAP

USING COCONUT OIL” by Mr “Amrit Kumar Mishra, symbol no:
14900476 ”, under the supervision of “Mr Yubraj Ghimire, Tilottama
Secondary School, Nepal”, is hereby submitted for the partial fulfilment
of requirement of Chemistry in Grade 12. This project work has not been
submitted in any other school or institution previously for the award of
Grade 12.

Supervisor Head of the Department

Mr Yubraj Ghimire Dr. Krishna Sharma

Department of Chemistry Department of Chemistry

Tilottama Secondary School Tilottama Secondary School

Internal Examiner External Examiner

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 RECOMMENDATION LETTER

This is to certify that the project work entitled “A STUDY OF

PREPARATION OF SOAP USING COCONUT OIL” has been carried
out by Amrit Kumar Mishra as a partial fulfilment of Grade 12 in
Chemistry under my supervision. To the best of knowledge, this work has
not been submitted to any other purpose in this institute. I, therefore
recommend the project work report for appraisal.

Supervisor

Mr Yubraj Ghimire

Department of Chemistry

Tilottama Secondary School, Nepal

Date: 2079/10/18

iii
 DECLARATION

I, “Amrit Kumar Mishra” hereby declare that the project work entitled “A
STUDY OF PREPARATION OF SOAP USING COCONUT OIL” under
the supervision of “Mr Yubraj Ghimire, Tilottama Secondary School,
Nepal”, presented hereby is genuine work done originally by me and has
not been published or submitted elsewhere for the requirement of any
degree program. Any literature, data or works done by others and cited in
this project work has been given acknowledgement and listed in the
reference section.

Signature

Amrit Kumar Mishra

Grade: 12

Email address: amrit.kmishra360@gmail.com

Date: 2079/10/18

iv
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Firstly, I would express my heartfelt gratitude to my respected supervisor

“Mr Yubraj Ghimire” for his regular guidance, suggestion and inspiration
throughout my project. Again, it’s my pleasure to express my sincere
gratitude to Dr. Krishna Sharma and Mr Yubraj Ghimire for their
guidance, valuable suggestion and cooperation in the completion of my
report.

I would also like to express my heartfelt thanks to the principal prof. Dr.
Ram Chandra Acharya of Tilottama Campus for providing the essential
materials for my project. I would like to thank my friends and family for
the constant support and help in this project.

Amrit Kumar Mishra

Class: 12 ‘B’

Symbol No: 14900476

Registration No: 795490050059

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Coverage or Title page…………………………………..i

Approval Sheet…………………………………………..ii

Letter of recommendation……………………………….iii

Declaration………………………………………………iv

Acknowledgements……………………………………...v

Table of Contents……………………………………….vi

Chapter 1: Introduction………………………...........vii

Chapter 2: Principle …………………..…………….x

Chapter 3: Materials …………………..……………..xi

Chapter 4: Procedure………………………………....xii

Chapter 5: Observation……………………………..xiii

Chapter 6: Result and Discussion…………………...xiv

Chapter 7: Conclusion……………………………….xiv

Chapter 8: Limitation of Study………………….….xv

Chapter 9: Recommendation for Further Study….xv

References……………………………………………..xvi

Appendices…………………………………………...xvii

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1. INTRODUCTION

A fatty acid is a carboxylic acid with an aliphatic chain, which is either

saturated or unsaturated. They are the major component of the lipids in
organisms. But in some other organisms are not found in their standalone
form, but exist as three main classes of esters: triglycerides, phospholipids
and cholesteryl esters.

On the basis of types of bond present between the carbon atoms of the
fatty acids, they are classified into 2 broad categories.

1. Saturated fatty acids: Those fatty acids which have no C=C double
bonds are classified under it. They have formula CH3(CH2)nCOOH, for
different n. An important saturated fatty acid is stearic acid (n = 16),
which when neutralized with sodium hydroxide is the most common form
of soap. Some examples of such type of fatty acids are stearic acid
(CH3(CH2)16COOH, palmitic acid (CH3(CH2)14COOH), etc.

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2. Unsaturated fatty acids: those fatty acids which have one or more
C=C double bonds are called unsaturated fatty acids. The C=C double
bonds can give either cis or trans isomers. Some examples of such fatty
acids are oleic acid (CH3(CH2)7CH=CH(CH2)7COOH), linoleic
acid(CH3(CH2)4CH=CHCH2CH=CH(CH2)7COOH), etc

Soap is an anionic surfactant used in conjunction with water for washing

and cleaning, which historically comes either in solid bars or in the form
of a viscous liquid. Chemically, a soap is a salt of a compound, known as
fatty acid. A soap molecule has a long hydrocarbon chain with a
carboxylic acid group on one end, which has an ionic bond with a metal
ion, usually sodium or potassium. They are prepared by the saponification
process, which is, reacting the oil which contain triglycerides with caustic
soda (NaOH) to give the soap. However different oils have different
composition of fatty acids which are responsible for different properties
of soaps made out of them. In the present work pure coconut oil is used.

The cleansing action of soaps is because of their ability to emulsify or

disperse water insoluble materials and hold them in the suspension of
water. Fats and oils are esters of different fatty acids and glycerol. Fats
and oils are divided into three classes, fixed oils, mineral oils and
essential oils. Fixed oils form the main raw materials for soap making as
they decompose into fatty acids and glycerol when strongly heated and
can be easily saponified by alkali. Fixed oils, which include both animal
and vegetable fats and oils.

The cleaning action of soap is due to the formation of micelle by the soap
molecules in such a way that the hydrophobic part is in the oil droplet
(dirt) and the hydrophobic part projects out. Since the polar interacts with

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water surrounded by soap ions is pulled from the surface and pulled into
the water. In water, the soap molecule is uniquely oriented which helps to
keep the hydrocarbon part outside the water. When the clusters of
molecules are formed then the hydrophobic tail comes at the surface of
the cluster and this formation is called micelle.

When the soap is in the form of micelle then it has the ability to clean the
oily dirt which gets accumulated at the center. These micelles remain as
colloidal solutions. Therefore, the dirt from the cloth is easily washed
away. The soap solution appears cloudy as it forms a colloidal solution
which scatters light.

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2. PRINCIPLE

Saponification is commonly used to refer to the reaction of a metallic

alkali with a fat or oil to form soap. Soaps are denoted by the general
formula RCOONa+, where R is any long chain alkyl group consisting of
12- 18 carbon atoms. The reaction between vegetable oil and sodium
hydroxide is exothermic because heat is liberated during the reaction. The
white suspension formed is made up of soap and glycerol. It is necessary
to stir the soap solution after adding common salt to it, to precipitate out
the soap in solid form. The process of precipitation of soap from the
suspension is called salting out. The saponification is completed if a wax
like solid begins to form that on further cooling becomes hard and
somewhat brittle. On the other hand, if the mixture cools to a syrupy
liquid, saponification is incomplete, and heating and stirring must be
resumed. It might be advisable to add more (5 ml) 20% NaOH and boil
the mixture until its water is expelled. Saponification should be
completed by 30-45 minutes.

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 3. MATERIALS

i. Coconut oil
ii. 20% sodium hydroxide solution
iii. Common salt
iv. Measuring cylinders
v. Glass beakers (250 ml)
vi. Glass rod
vii. Bunsen burner
viii. Wire gauze
ix. Tripod stand
x. Spatula

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 4. PROCEDURE

i. 60 ml of coconut oil was taken in a beaker.

ii. 15 gm of 20% NaOH was measured in pan balance and was added
into another beaker containing 50 ml of water and was vigorously
stirred with a glass rod.
iii. Similarly, 15 gm of NaCl was made solution in 200 ml of water.
iv. The prepared NaOH solution was added in the beaker containing
coconut oil with constant stirring.
v. Then the solution was heated with constant stirring over Bunsen
burner with the help of wire gauge and tripod stand.
vi. The solution was boiled up to 10-12 minutes.
vii. Now, the prepared 200 ml of NaCl solution was added slowly into
the boiled solution with constant stirring.
viii. The resulting solution was then left for 30-40 minutes to cool off.
ix. Now the cooled solution was poured in moulds of desired shape to
get the soap of desired shapes.

xii
5. OBSERVATIONS

a) When 20% NaOH solution was added to the beaker containing

coconut oil, it was observed that the beaker was warmed slightly
when touched from outside. It is because the process of
saponification is exothermic.
b) The red litmus paper changes colour to blue when dipped in
suspension Blue litmus paper was not affected by the suspension.
c) Adding common salt, the salt in suspension precipitated out as
solid.
d) The soap so formed was tested with water and it successfully
formed later and also had good cleansing property same as the
soaps available in the market.

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6. RESULT AND DISCUSSION

Pure coconut oil was used in this experiment to prepare soap. The soap so
formed had cleansing properties as the soap available in the market. It
produced generous amount of lather with water.

7. CONCLUSION

Different chemical reactions involving in the process of preparation of

soap using coconut oil were studied in this experiment. The results
obtained from these experiments have been shown in this process. The
experiments have been performed by common laboratory methods using
different laboratory apparatus and chemicals. The quantity and quality of
the soap formed, depended upon the quality of coconut oil used for the
preparation of soap. This way soap can be prepared using coconut oil.

xiv
8. LIMITATION OF STUDY

The preparation of soap was only done from coconut oil. Meanwhile,
many other oils which could form better quality soap were not used in
course of this experiment due to availability issues. Meanwhile, the
quality of soap was compromised due to adulteration in the vegetable oils.
The coconut oil used in the experiment may not be 100% pure which
could alter the quality of soap thus formed. Meanwhile, the appropriate
quantity of reagents like common salt and sodium hydroxide may not be
maintained throughout the experiment. The saponification may not be
fully completed which could compromise the quality of the soap formed.

9. RECOMMENDATION FOR FURTHER WORK

This project work could be a crucial insight for the preparation of high
quality soap from other various types of vegetable oils available in the
market.

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REFERENCES

Mishra, A.D., Kaulani, S.K., Joshi, R.D., Pal, K.B., Pandey, A. Pioneer
chemistry Grade XII, Dreamland Publication, Dillibazar, Kathmandu

Ethesis: http://ethesis.nitrkl.ac.in/

amrita.olabs.edu.in

scienceprojects.org

slideshare.net

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APPENDICES:

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