CHAPTER-2 SOAP 2.1Soap: soap is a metallic salt of saturated (CnH2n+1COOH) or unsaturated (CnH2n-1COOH) higher fatty acid. There may be Pb,Mg,Ca or other metallic salts but as detergents only Na or K salt of higher fatty acids. Soap is made on a commercial scale by boiling natural oil or fatty oil which is used for soap manufacturing.
The following oils are used in soap manufacturing:
➢ Cotton seed oil
➢ Coconut oil ➢ Oliver oil ➢ Soya bin oil ➢ Palm oils ➢ Ground nut oil
2.2 Soap manufacturing process : Soap is made
on a commercial scale by boiling natural oil and fatty oils with aqueous solution of sodium or pottatium hydroxide 3NaOH + C57H110O6 → 3C17H35COONa + C3H8O3
Sodium soaps are sparingly soluble in strong sodium chloride
solution.The mixture of soap and glycerol in aqueous solution obtained by soapnification is therefore saturated with common salt when the soap is precipitated and rises to the surface where it can be skimmed off. It is washed with cold water to remove of excess of alkali and is cast into cakes or bars and dried.
The potassium saps are not easily separated from the
glycerol because addition of NaCl causes precipitation of the Na- salt of fatty acid.
C17H35COOK + NaCl = C17H35COONa + KCl
2.3 Properties of soap:
1. Soap dissolve very slowly in cold water but rapidly in hot water.
2. Soap dissolves in hot alcohol but is only sparingly soluble in
other organic solvents such as acetone, ether or petroleum 3. In extremely dilute solutions soap ionizes:
RCOONa → RC00- + Na+ RCOO- + H2O →
RCOOH + OH-
Sometimes there is free fatty acid molecules in soap to form
what is known as acid soaps.
xRCOOH+yRCOONa → (RCOOH)x (RCOON)y
ACID SOAP
4. Soap react with hard water to form insoluble soap.
2C17H35COONa + CaSO4 → (C17H35COO)2 Ca+ Na2 SO4
5. The no. of carbon atom in the aliphatic chain of soap
important is very important. Less than 9(C) - No detergency power 17(C) – Extremely good detergent Above 17(C) – poor solubility Selection of Soap : 1. Soap should contain at least 62% of fatty acid and between 6.5% and 8.5% combined alkali expressed as Na2O
2. No free fat, unsaponifiable oil or free caustic
should present free caustic alkali denotes careless in manufacture but sodium carbonate or silicate are often added purposely to make the soap harder or to improve its detergent action.
3. Salts such as sodium chloride and sodium
sulphate should only be present in small quantity.
4. It should show a high degree of surface affinity.
5. The most important factors which determine the
properties of soaps in the number of carbon atoms in the aliphatic chain. If there are less than 9(CH2) group, the soap will have virtually no detergent power.