Chemistry of Soaps

Cleansing agents make our living style lively and pleasant by removing germs, dirt, and unpleasant odor. Cleanliness is half faith in Islam as it improves the quality of living, spiritual empowerment and makes our surroundings worth living.

Soaps:-

By definition, soaps are inorganic water-soluble alkaline salts of fatty acids i.e. sodium and potassium salts of fatty acids obtained from animals, plants, and other natural sources or their derivatives.

Here we are first going through the chemistry of soap components:

Fats and Oils:-

These are obtained mostly from animals used for eating, plants ashes, and other biodegradable organisms. Fats and oils are mixtures of Triglycerides, three fatty acids surrounded by one glycerin molecule. Moreover, fatty acids are weak acids composed of two parts, one is Carboxylic Acid COOH group and other one is 1 carbon attached to the chain of hydrocarbons.

Alkalis:-

Alkalis are water-soluble bases.

Why we need soaps?

Water is an essential part of life; we need water in all areas of life and so in cleaning, no matter for personal hygiene or cleaning utensils, clothes, or others daily-life materials. But if we go through the chemistry of water, there is a property that is responsible for stopping water to do much with cleaning especially when we are with grease or other sticky and dense particles. That is surface tension.

Surface Tension:-

If you drop some water on the counter or on the glass, it shapes and stops. Have you ever thought about why this is? Here we are going to elaborate on it briefly.

Each water molecule is surrounded by another water molecule only on the waterside, which causes tension over the surface side this is called surface tension.

For cleansing purposes, surface tension must be minimized to get optimum results. Chemicals that enable us to do this effectively are called surface-active agents or Surfactants.

v  Soap is an anionic surfactant.

History of Soap:-

The history of Soaps goes back to early Humans live near the water and use it for multiple purposes including cleaning. (1) For instance, they must know that water can rinse off the mud from their hands.

1.       An early document reveals that Babylonians are the first known people to use soaps for the cleaning of wools and cotton yarn for weaving dated 2800 B.C.

2.       Egyptians civilization used a chemical product of natural oil with alkaline salts as a cure from skin diseases.

3.       Arabic Chemists were started manufacturing the Soaps on an industrial level by mixing the vegetable and aromatic oil with Sodium Lye (NOAH) for cleaning of body and clothes.

the word Soap comes from an ancient Roman legend Mount Sopa, where the animals were sacrificed by locals of this region. seasonal rain drained the animal fats and residues to nearby river namely River Tibal where women found that when all of this mix with the wet mud of river it is easier to removes oils and other cloth patches.

Manufacturing of Soaps:-

Nowadays, Soap is manufactured by two processes. Hot and Cold Process

 The common principle used in both is Saponification

Saponification:-

Fats and oils are reacted with aqueous alkalis (like sodium and potassium) under the presence of heat. By this, the greasy material TRIGLYCERIDE is removed and the rest of the compound is poured in container to get the shape and that is the Soap.

We can say is that soap is one of the early products of the history of mankind. It is environment-friendly and a pleasure to use it.

 

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