CHEMICAL FOR CONSUMERS DAYANA BT.

MOHAMED DIN 10178 510 JUBILANT

THE DEFINITION O SOAP

Soap is the sodium or potassium salt of fatty acids.Fatty acid are long chained carboxylic acids which contains 12 to 18 carbon atoms per molecule.The general formula for soap is RCOONa+ or ,where R is the long chemical alkyl group.

THE HISTORY OF SOAP

Soaps have been used since thousands of year ago by the Babylonians. Unfortunately,soaps produced during that time are not pure.In the 18 th century,many people produced soap using materials from ashes of plants and animal fat.The ash were boiled with lime to produce caustic potash (potassium hydroxide).The caustic potash solution produced is then boiled with animal fat to produced soap.In 1791,Nicholas Le Blanc (1742-1806) found a way to produce soda ash (sodium carbonate) from table salt,sodium chloride.Later Ernest Solvay developed a process to further reduce the cost of producing soda ash.Since then, soap is successfully mass produced from sodium ash.In 1816,Michel Chevreul discovered that animal fats are made from fatty acids and glycerol.This finding has enabled scientist to understand the chemical reactions that occurred durig soap formation.

THE PROCESS OF SOAP PRODUCTION :Saponification

Soap can be made from animal fats or vegetable oils through the saponification process .Fats and vegetable oils are naturally occurring large ester molecules.The relative molecular mass for these types of esters is around 700.When fats or oils are boiled with concentrated alkalis,hydrolysis occurs and the ester molecules are broken down into soap and glycerol.The alkaline hydrolysis of esters using alkali solutions is known as saponification.Hence,soap is the sodium or potassium salt of fatty acid.In the saponification process,the salt of fatty acid (soap) and glycerol are formed.

Ester + Concentrated alkaline

Salt of fatty acid (soap) + Glycerol

Some examples of soaps are sodium palmitate,sodium stearate and sodium oleate.To prepare sodium stearate soap: a) Glyceryl tristerate found in vegetable oils and animal fats is boiled with concentrated alkaline solution, such as sodium hydroxide. b) Alkaline hydrolysis occurs and the glyceryl tristearate molecules are broken down to glycerol and carboxylic acid (fatty acid). c) The fatty acid produced then undergoes neutralization with sodium hydroxide to form soap.

Hydrolysis can be represented as the diagram below: CH2COOC17H35 CH2OH

CHCOOC17H35 + 3NaOH

3C17H35COONa
sodium stearate

+ CHOH

CH2COOC17H35
Glyceryl tristearate (The symbol represents heating)

(soap)

CH2OH
glycerol

Glycerol is an alcohol with 3 hydroxyl groups, OH.The IUPAC name of glycerol is propan 1,2,3triol.The formula is as follows:

HOCH2

HOCH

HOCH2

Glycerol is a useful substance in the manufacture of cosmetics,plastic,explosives and paint.The soap formed can be precipitated by adding sodium chloride into the soap solution.Sodium chloride reduces the solubility of soap in water.Thus,this precipitates soap.The soap precipitate is then filtered,washed and purified.Additives such as perfumes,colouring, and anticeptics are then added to the soap.Most soap produced today are used as bathing soaps.The soaps usually consist of potassium salts because of its softer properties.

DETERGENT
Detergent are soap free cleaning agents.Detergents are usually made from synthetic resources such as petroleum fractions.Detergents are sodium salts of sulphonic acid.The sulphonic acid used in the manufacture of detergents are long chained molecules containing 12 to 18 carbon atoms per molecule.There are 2 types of detergents commonly used in the market namely sodium alkyl sulphate salts and sodium alkylbenzen sulphonate (as shown below). a) Sodium alkyl sulphate

H H H H H H H H H H H H

H C C C C C C C C C C C C O S O Na+ H H H H H H H H H H H H O

b) Sodium alkylbenzene sulphate

H H H H H H H H H H H H H C C C C C C C C C C C C H H H H H H H H H H H H

O S O Na+ O

There are a variety of detergents that can be synthesized by changing the structure of the hydrocarbon chain or by replacing the ionic group with other groups.

PREPARATION OF DETERGENT
During the preparation of detergents,a long cain hydrocarbon obtained from petroleum is converted into an organic acid.The organic acid is the neutralised with sodium hydroxide solution to produce a neutral salt,which is a detergent.

The manufacture of sodium alkyl sulphate

The process of manufacturing sodium alkyl sulphate involes 2 stages :

a)Stage 1 :Sulphonation (Formation of an organic acid: Long chained aliphatic alcohol reacts with concentrared sulphuric acid to produce alkyl sulphonic acid.

CH3

CH3

CH3(CH2)9CH + HO S OH

CH3(CH2)9CH + HO S OH + H2O

OH
Alcohol

O
Concentrated sulphuric acid

OH
Alkyl hydrogen sulphate

b)Stage 2 : Neutralisation The alkyl sulphonic acid reacts with sodium hydroxide solution to produce sodium alkyl sulphate as the detergent.

CH3

CH3

CH3(CH2)9CH O S OH + NaOH

CH3(CH2)9CH O S ONa+ + H2O

OH

Alkyl hydrogen sulphate

Sodium alkyl sulphate (detergent)

The manufacture of sodium alkylbenzene sulphonate

The process of manufacturing sodium alkyl sulphate involes 3 stages : a) Step 1 : Alkylation of alkene Long chain alkenes from petroleum fractions are reacted with benzene to produce alkylbenzene.

CH3

CH3(CH2)9CH = CH2 +
Alkene Benzene

CH3(CH2)9CH
Alkylbenzene

b)Step 2: Sulphonation of alkylbenzene The alkylbenzene produced are reacted with fuming concentrated sulphuric acid to produce alkylbenzene sulphonic acid.

CH3

CH3

CH3(CH2)9CH `

+ HO S OH

CH3(CH2)9CH

S OH + H2O

OH

Alkylbenzene sulphonic acid

c) Step 3 : Neutralization Sodium hydroxide solution neutralises the alkylbenzene sulphonic acid to produce sodium alkylbenzene sulphonate as detergent.

CH3

CH3

CH3(CH2)9CH

S OH + NaOH

CH3(CH2)9CH

S ONa+ + H2O

O
Alkylbenzene sulphonic acid

O
Sodium alkylbenzene sulphonate ( detergent)

THE CLEANSING CTION OF SOAP AND DETERGENT

Water, on its own is unable to wash away dirt efficiently.Although water is a good solvent ,it cannot dissolve dirt such as oil and grease.Hence the removal of oily dirt by water alone is difficult to accomplish.The cleansing action of both soaps and the detergents results from their ability to lower the surface tension of water,to emulsify oil and grease and to hold the oil or grease in suspension in water.This ability is due to the stucture of soaps and detergents.When soap,for example odium palmitate is dissolved in water,it dissociates to form ions.The sodium ion is separated from the hydrocarbon chain which forms a negatively charged ion.The negatively charge ion (anion)structure consist of 2 parts as shown below: a)The carboxylate group is the ionic part and is soluble in water (hydrophilic). b)The hydrocarbon chain ,which is hydrophobic , is soluble in oils and grease.

CH3 CH2 CH2 CH2 CH2 CH2 CH2 CH2 \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ CH2 CH2 CH2 CH2 CH2 CH2 CH2 C O
ionic part

O
Covalent hydrocarbon chain

Similarly,detergents also dissociate in water to produce an anion and the anion also consist of two parts , i.e. the hydrophobic part and the hydrophilic part.This means that soaps and detergents dissolve in both water and grease.The following explains the cleansing action of a soap or detergent to remove greasy stains. a)When soap or detergent is added to water,it reduces the surface tension of water. b)This increase the wetting ability of water and water is able to thoroughly wet the surface area of the cloth. c)Thr hydrophobic part of the soap or detergent anion is soluble in grease while the hydrophilic part is soluble in water. d)Hence the soap or detergent anion is able to bind to both water and grease. e)The movement of water helps to loosen and remove the grease from the cloth surface and break it to smaller droplets. f)The droplets are prevented from coagulating and re-depositing on the surface of the cloth as the droplets are covered by negative ends of the anions. g)Hence,the droplets are suspended in water forming an emulsion. h)Rinsing washes away these droplets and leaves the surface clean.

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE CLEANSING ACTION OF SOAP AND DETERGENT

Soaps and effective in soft water.However,its effectiveness is reduced in hard water. Water that does contain any magnesium or calcium ions is known as soft water.Hard water contains dissolved calcium and magnesium salts.Water that flows into soil can dissolve numerous types of ion, such as calcium and magnesium.These ions will combine with soap molecules such as sodium palmitate to form an insoluble precipitate called soap scum.For example:

Ca2+ (aq) +2CH