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.

.
of fatty acid.

CHCOOK+NaCl-CH&COONa+KCH
17(C)-Extremely good detergent

Above 17(C)-Poor solubility

24