SOAP AND DETERGENT

SOAP
- Soaps are sodium or potassium salts of long-chain fatty acids.
- General formula of a soap can be written as:
RCOONa+ or RCOOK+
- R is an alkyl group that usually containing 12 to 18 carbon atoms.
- It can be saturated or unsaturated.

Saponification
- Saponification is a process to prepare soap.
- Soap is made by boiling a mixture of fats or vegetable oil with concentrated alkali
(NaOH or KOH)
DETERGENT
- Detergent is non-soap cleansing agent.
- It is divided into natural detergent and synthetic detergent
- Detergent is the sodium salt of sulphonic acid
- Natural detergent is made from animal or vegetable oil while synthetic detergent is
normally made from petroleum
- Commercialized detergent are usually sodium alkyl sulphate and sodium alkyl benzene
sulphonate

Cleansing Action of Soap and Detergent

- Soap reduces the surface tension of water.

- This increase the wetting ability of water.
- So, the surface of cloth is wetted thoroughly.

- The hydrophobic part of the soap anion dissolves in the grease.

- The hydrophilic part attracted to the water molecules.
 - Scrubbing helps pull the grease free from cloth surface.

- Grease is removed from the cloth surface as tiny oil droplets.

- Tiny oil droplets with negative charge repel each other.
- This prevent them from redeposit on the surface.

Comparison of Soap and Detergent

Soap Detergent

 Biodegradable
 effective in hard water and
Strength
 Not poisonous to aquatic life acidic water

Weaknes  Not effective in hard water and

 not biodegradable
s acidic water

Additives in detergent
Additives Function

biological enzymes To remove protein stains such as blood

fragrances To add fragrance to both the detergent and fabrics

whitening agents To convert stains into colourless substances

suspension agents To prevent the dirt particles removed from redepositing onto
cleaned fabrics

foam control To control foaming in detergent

agents

builder To enhance the cleaning efficiency of detergent by softening the

water