DETERGENTS AND SOAPS

BASIC PRINCIPLES

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 OBJECTIVES
At the end of this session the student should be
able:
1. To define detergents
2. classify detergents
3.describe the structure of detergents
4.outline the properties of detergents and soaps
5.Explain the theory of detergency

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 INTRODUCTION

• The word detergent is derived from the Latin

adjective detergens, from the verb detergere, meaning
to wipe or polish off.
• Detergent is a surfactant or a mixture of surfactants
with cleansing properties when in dilute solutions.
• However, conventionally, detergent is used to mean
synthetic cleaning compounds as opposed to soap (a
salt of the natural fatty acid), even though soap is also a
detergent in the true sense.

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 IN DOMESTIC CONTEXTS
•  The term detergent refers to household
cleaning products such as 
laundry detergent or dish detergent, which
are in fact complex mixture of different
compounds, not all of which are by
themselves detergents.
• Detergency is the ability to remove
unwanted substances termed 'soils' from a
substrate (e.g. clothing).
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 DEFINITIONS
• A detergent is surfactant or mixture of surfactants
with cleansing properties when in dilute solutions.
• There are a large variety of detergents a common
family being the alkylbenzene Sulphonates, which
are soap like compounds that are more soluble in
hard water, because the polar suphonates (of the
detergents) less likely than the polar carboxylate
(of soap) to bind the calcium ions and any other
ions present in hard water.

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CLASSIFICATIONS OF DETERGENTS

Anionic detergents
• Typical anionic detergents are alkylbenzene sulfonates. The 
alkylbenzene portion of these anions is lipophilic and the sulfonate is
hydrophilic.
• Two varieties have been popularized, those with branched 
alkyl groups and those with linear alkyl groups.
• The former were largely phased out in economically advanced
societies because they are poorly biodegradable.
• Anionic detergents is the most common form of detergents, and an
estimated 6 billion kilograms of anionic detergents are produced
annually for the domestic markets.
• Bile acids, such as deoxycholic acid (DOC), are anionic detergents
produced by the liver to aid in digestion and absorption of fats and oils.

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 CATIONIC DETERGENTS
 Cationic detergents are similar to anionic
ones, but quaternary ammonium replaces
the hydrophilic anionic sulphonate group.
 The ammonium sulphonate centre is
positively charged.
  Cationic surfactants generally have poor
detergency.

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 CATIONIC DETERGENTS

• Cationic detergents are similar to anionic

ones, but quaternary ammonium replaces
the hydrophilic anionic sulphonate group.
• The ammonium sulphate center is
positively charged.
•  Cationic surfactants generally have poor
detergency.

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CATIONIC STRUCTURE

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 NON-IONIC DETERGENTS

• Non-ionic detergents are characterized by their uncharged,

hydrophilic headgroups.
• Typical non-ionic detergents are based on polyoxyethylene or a 
glycoside.
• Common examples of the former include Tween, Triton, and the Brij
series.
• These materials are also known as ethoxylates or PEGylates and
their metabolites, nonylphenol.
• Glycosides have a sugar as their uncharged hydrophilic headgroup.
• Examples include octyl thioglucoside and maltosides. HEGA and
MEGA series detergents are similar, possessing a sugar alcohol as
headgroup.

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 AMPHOTERIC DETERGENTS

• Amphoteric or zwitterionic detergents

have zwitterions within a particular pH
range, and possess a net zero charge
arising from the presence of equal
numbers of +1 and −1 charged chemical
groups. Examples include CHAPS.

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 …AMPHOTERIC DETERGENTS
• The cleansing action of both soaps and
detergents results from their ability to lower the
surface tension of water, to emulsify oil or grease
and to hold them in a suspension in water.
• This ability is due to the structure of soaps and
detergents.
• In water, a sodium soap dissolves to form soap
anions and sodium cations. For example, the
following chemical equation shows the ionisation
of sodium palmitate.
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 STRUCTURE AND PROPERTIES

• Detergents are a group of compounds with an amphiphilic

structure, where each molecule has a hydrophilic (polar)
head and a long hydrophobic (non-polar) tail.
• The hydrophobic portion of these molecules may be straight-
or branched-chain hydrocarbons, or it may have a steroid
 structure.
• The hydrophilic portion is more varied, they may be ionic or
non-ionic, and can range from a simple or a relatively
elaborate structure.
•  Detergents are surfactants since they can decrease the
surface tension of water. 

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 ….DETERGENTS/SOAPS
• Their dual nature facilitates the mixture of
hydrophobic compounds (like oil and
grease) with water.
• Because air is not hydrophilic, detergents
are also foaming agents to varying
degrees.

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 MODE OF ACTION
• Detergent molecules aggregate to form micelles, which
makes them soluble in water.
• The hydrophobic group of the detergent is the main driving
force of micelle formation, its aggregation forms the
hydrophobic core of the micelles.
• The micelle can remove grease, protein or soiling particles.
• The concentration at which micelles start to form is the
critical micelle concentration (CMC), and the temperature
at which the micelles further aggregate to separate the
solution into two phases is the cloud point when the
solution becomes cloudy and detergency is optimal.

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 PROPERTIES
• Detergents work better in an alkaline pH.
The properties of detergents are
dependent on the molecular structure of
the monomer.
• The ability to foam may be determined by
the head group, for example anionic
surfactants are high-foaming, while
nonionic surfactants may be non-foaming
or low-foaming.
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EQUATION

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 SOAPS
• A soap anion consists of a long
hydrocarbon chain with a carboxylate group
on one end.
• The hydrocarbon chain, which
is hydrophobic, is soluble in oils or grease.
• The ionic part is the carboxylate group,
which is hydrophilic, is soluble in water.

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STRUCTURE OF SOAP

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GENERAL FORMULA OF DETERGENTS

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 IN WATER
• In water, a detergent dissolves to form
detergent anions and sodium cations.
• For example, the following chemical
equations show the ionisation of sodium
alkyl sulphate and sodium alkylbenzene
sulphonate.

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 ….DETERGENT
• Similarly, the anion part of a detergent also
consists of a hydrophobic part and a
hydrophilic part.

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 THEORY OF DETERGENTS
• The detergency process is surprisingly complex. Good
detergency requires the synergism of many
simultaneous processes.
• Surfactants in a detergent or cleaning formulation must
cause the cleaning solution to wet both the surface to
be cleaned and the contaminant to be removed.
• The contaminant must then be suspended, solubilized
or emulsified by the cleaning formulation, so that it
does not become redeposited on the surface.

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 …THEORY OF DETERGENCY
• The surfactant must, therefore, not be too water soluble,
or it will not have good adsorption on the contaminant.
• It must also not be too close to a phase boundary, or it
may precipitate or form a coacervate.
• Coacervate (/koʊəˈsɜːrvət/ or /koʊˈæsərveɪt/) is an
aqueous phase rich in macromolecules such as synthetic
polymers, proteins or nucleic acids. It forms through
liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS), leading to a dense
phase in thermodynamic equilibrium with a dilute phase.

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 …DETERGENCY THEORY
• While surfactants are generally the primary active
agents in water based cleaning formulations, modern
cleaning systems include numerous other additives to
optimize the cleaning.
• For example, builders are added to reduce the activity
of multivalent counterions that otherwise might
precipitate the surfactant.
• Enzymes are often added to assist in solubilizing heavy
oil or fats, or even to remove loose fibrils from the
fabric that cause it to look grey.
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 GENERAL
A good grounding in all aspects of surfactant
science, including micelle formation, surfactant
precipitation and phase separation, wetting,
adsorption, emulsification, microemulsions,
dispersion and suspension of particulates, and
foaming.

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ILLUSTRATIONS OF DETERGENCY

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CLEANSING ACTION OF SOAP/DETERGENT

• On a piece of cloth with a greasy stain.

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 …CLEANSING ACTION OF SOAP AND
DETERGENT
• Soap or detergent reduces the surface tension of water.
• Therefore, the surface of the cloth is wetted thoroughly.
• The hydrophobic parts of the soap or detergent anions
are soluble in grease.
• The hydrophilic parts of the anions are soluble in water.
• Scrubbing or mechanical agitation helps to pull the
grease away from the cloth and the grease is broken
into smaller droplets.

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..CLEANSING ACTION OF SOAPS AND
DETERGENTS

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CLEANSING ACTION

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 ….CLEANSING ACTION
• Repulsion between the droplets causes the
droplets to be suspended in water, forming an
emulsion.
• Thus, the droplets do not coagulate or
redeposit on the cloth.
• Rinsing washes away the droplets.

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 LABORATORY SOAP MAKING PROCEDURE
• Take 25 ml of coconut oil in a measuring cylinder and pour it into a 250 ml
glass beaker.
• Measure 30 ml of 20% NaOH solution in another measuring cylinder and
add it into the beaker containing vegetable oil.
• Vigorously stir the mixture using a glass rod.
• Touch the beaker from outside. It is observed that the beaker is warm.
• Place the beaker on a wire gauze placed over a tripod stand.
• Heat the beaker using a Bunsen burner till the mixture become a whitish
paste.
• Remove the beaker from the flame and allow it to cool.
• Dip a red litmus paper in the suspension formed.
• When dipped in the suspension, the red litmus paper changes its colour to
blue.

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• Dip a blue litmus paper in the suspension.
• The colour of blue litmus paper remains the same.
• To the above suspension, add 15g of common salt and stir it well with a glass
rod.
• After adding common salt, soap in the suspension gets precipitated out as solid.
• Take a filter funnel and place a filter paper in it and fix it in a stand.
• Place a beaker below the funnel.
• Pour the contents of the beaker into the funnel over a glass rod and filter the
contents of the beaker.
• After filtration, soap is left behind in the filter paper.
• Transfer the soap into another filter paper using a spatula and dry it by pressing
with another filter paper.
• Then, cut it into desired shape with a knife.

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 SUMMARY
Defined detergents

classified detergents

Described the structure of detergents

Outlined the properties of detergents and soaps

Explained the theory of detergency

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