Soap Final
Soap Final
Soap Final
Introduction
Soap is a salt of a fatty acid used in a variety of cleansing and lubricating products.[1] In a domestic
setting, soaps are surfactants usually used for washing, bathing, and other types of housekeeping. In
industrial settings, soaps are used as thickeners, components of some lubricants, and
precursors to catalysts. When used for cleaning, soap solubilizes particles and grime, which can then
be separated from the article being cleaned. In hand washing, as a surfactant, when lathered with a
little water, soap kills microorganisms by disorganizing their membrane lipid bilayer and denaturing
their proteins.[citation needed] It also emulsifies oils, enabling them to be carried away by running
water.[2]
Soap is created by mixing fats and oils with a base.[3] Humans have used soap for millennia;
evidence exists for the production of soap-like materials in ancient Babylon around 2800 BC.
types of soap:
Castile soap -- a mild soap originally made in Spain with pure olive oil. Today many “castile”
soaps are made with other vegetable oils. Castile is a marvelous cleanser, producing a rich
lather.
Cream soaps – soaps containing cold cream materials, moisturizers and emollients. Cream
soaps are particularly good for dry and delicate skin
Deodorant soaps – soaps to which antibacterial agents have been added to reduce odor-
causing bacteria. Floating soaps – soaps having air bubbles incorporated to lower the density.
This causes the bar to float.
Hypo-allergenic soaps – Mild formula soaps, low in potential irritants. They usually produce
a poor lather.
Medicated soaps – soaps containing medications such as tar, sulphur, or antibacterial
ingredients, used to treat acne and other skin disorders. Medicated soaps require through
rinsing and are not recommended for sensitive skin.
Milled soaps – these are the most commonly used, mass produced soaps. Milling refers to the
mixing of color, perfume and soap flakes.
Oatmeal soap – A rough –textured soap to which oatmeal has been added as a mild abrasive
and lather. Good for oily, dry, and normal skin.
Preperation of Soap
Soap is prepared by hydrolyzing a fat under alkaline (basic) conditions. The reaction is called
saponification, and produces one molecule of glycerin and three molecules of soap, for each
molecule of fat taken.
The fats and oils most commonly used in soap preparation are lard and tallow from animal
sources, and coconut, palm and olive oils from vegetable sources.
Tallow and lard are the fats separated from solid beef fat (suet) and hog fat, by the process of
rendering. Rendering consists of boiling the animal fat in a pot with an equal volume of water
until a layer of melted fat collects on top. (when the animal tissue is heated, the fat in the cells
melts, expands, ruptures the cell membrane- and then flows out. Since the fat is immiscible
with water, and has a lower density, it forms a floating layer on the top of the water in the
pot.) the rendered fat is then drawn off, and allowed to solidify by cooling.
The length of the hydrocarbon chain and the number of double bonds in the carbonylicacid
portion of the fat or oil determine the properties of the resulting soap. For example, a salt of a
saturated, long-chain acid makes a harder, more insoluble soap. Chain length also affects
solubility. Tallow is the principal fatty material used in soap making, with coconut or palm
oil blended in, to produce a softer (more soluble) soap which will readily lather. Soaps made
with KOH (caustic potash) instead of NaOH (caustic soda) are liquid rather than solid, at
room temperature. (potassium salts have a lower melting point than sodium salts.)
Toilet soaps are generally carefully washed free of any remaining alkali used in the
saponification procedure to avoid irritation and drying of the skin. As much glycerine as
possible is usually left in the soap, and perfumes, coloring, and medicinal agents are
sometimes added. Also added, are antioxidants to prevent the soap from turning rancid. Many
soaps are superfatted, i.e. not all of the fat is hydrolysed, in order that the final soap have
some fat remaining to lubricate and smooth dry and sensitive skin.
Besides tallow and coconut oil, there are many other natural fats and oils which can be
economically employed to make soaps of varying degrees of quality. The less pure the raw
material is, the more likely the soap will have an off-color (generally yellow or brown), and
an undesirable odor. (impure fats are sometimes treated with bleaching agents before
saponification, but this adds to their cost.) Examples of such other starting materials in soap
manufacture are: coconut oil, palm oil, olive oil, cottonseed oil, sesame oil, corn oil, Soya
bean oil, hydrogenated vegetable oils, rosin, naphthelinic acids, and greases made from
animal skins, bones, tankage and garbage. The lower grades of soaps are used as yellow
laundry soap, soap powders, cleansers, and industrial soaps.
Procedure
Two procedures for soap making are given, a “cold” and a “hot” process. The cold process,
suitable for homemade soaps, produces soap bars which retain the glycreine by-product, and
if the amount of alkali employed in the saponification is limited, an excess of fat
(superfatted). The hot process, more suitable for laboratory or industrial preparation, yields a
more chemically pure powder; by-products and excess starting materials are separated.
I. Cold process
You must wear goggles or glasses.
When using a thermometer in this experiment, never use it to stir liquids. Instead, use a fire
polished glass rod. to properly measure the temperature of a liquid, hold the thermometer so
that its bulb is suspended in the center of the liquid while reading the mercury level. If the
liquid is being heated on a hot plate, do not the thermometer bulb to rest on the bottom of the
container, as it will then be overheated. Remove the thermometer from the container after
each reading. Note: the thermometer supplied does not require shaking down before or after
reading. Plug in a hot plate and set to high.
Weigh a 150 ml beaker on the trip scale and add 8g of NaOH pellets to it. Handle NaOH with
care as NaOH can burn the skin and is especially harmful to the eyes. In the hood, add 25 ml
of cold water to the beaker. Stir the mixture of NaOH pellets and water, until a clear solution
results. Caution: the beaker will become very hot as the NaOH dissolves.
Weigh a 250ml beaker on the trip-scale and add 58g of fat (Crisco vegetable shortening
works well) to it. Then place the beaker on the hot plate with low heat and with occasional
stirring, melt the fat to melt completely. Warm the melted fat to between 40-50 oC. Remove
the fat from the hot plate and add the lye solution to the fat with stirring. Stir the fat and
NaOH mixture continuously and until an emulsion is formed. Your mixture should look like
a thick, light yellow milk shake and should stay emulsified (should not separate into a fat and
NaOH layer). If your emulsion separates, the fat is too hot and needs to cool. Let the mixture
cool on the bench top with occasional stirring until an emulsion, which does not separate, is
formed. You may want to add perfume or other additives at this point. Pour the emulsion into
a plastic cup and place in your drawer for the reaction to run (it takes about 24 hours for the
reaction to be complete). Take the soap home with you and let age for about two weeks.
During this time a powdery layer of NaCO3 (soda ash) will form on the surface, as residual
NaOH reacts with CO2 in the air while the soap is drying. This powdery layer should be
sliced off and the soap is ready to be used.