Study Guide
Acknowledgement
I will treasure the knowledge imparted to me by Mrs. Anita Thomas, my grateful thanks to her for the able teaching and guidance. I thank Mr. Harsha Kumar, the Lab assistant for his cooperation. I also thank my parents and my friends for their constant support and cooperation.
Preface
Soaps and detergents remove dirt and grease from skin and clothes. But all soaps are not equally effective in their cleaning action. Soaps are the Na and K salts of higher fatty acids such as Palmitic acid, Stearic acid and Oleic acid.
The cleansing action of soaps depends on the solubility of the long alkyl chain in grease and that of the -COONa or the -COOK part in water.
Whenever soap is applied on a dirty wet cloth, the non polar alkyl group dissolves in grease while the polar -COONa part dissolves in water. In this manner, an emulsion is formed between grease and water which appears as foam.
The washing ability of soap depends on foaming capacity, as well as the water used in cleaning. The salts of Ca and Mg disrupt the formation of micelle formation. The presence of such salts makes the water hard and the water is called hard water. These salts thus make the soap inefficient in its cleaning action.
Sodium Carbonate when added to hard water reacts with Ca and Mg and precipitates them out. Therefore sodium carbonate is used in the treatment of hard water.
This project aims at finding the foaming capacity of various soaps and the action of Ca and Mg salts on their foaming capacity.
Introduction
Soap is an anionic surfactant used in conjunction with water for washing and cleaning, which historically comes either in solid bars or in the form of a viscous liquid. Soap consists of sodium or potassium salts of fatty acids and is obtained by reacting common oils or fats with a strong alkaline in a process known as saponification. The fats are hydrolyzed by the base, yielding alkali salts of fatty acids (crude soap) and glycerol.
I will treasure the knowledge imparted to me by Mrs. Anita Thomas, my grateful thanks to her for the able teaching and guidance. I thank Mr. Harsha Kumar, the Lab assistant for his cooperation. I also thank my parents and my friends for their constant support and cooperation.
Preface
Soaps and detergents remove dirt and grease from skin and clothes. But all soaps are not equally effective in their cleaning action. Soaps are the Na and K salts of higher fatty acids such as Palmitic acid, Stearic acid and Oleic acid.
The cleansing action of soaps depends on the solubility of the long alkyl chain in grease and that of the -COONa or the -COOK part in water.
Whenever soap is applied on a dirty wet cloth, the non polar alkyl group dissolves in grease while the polar -COONa part dissolves in water. In this manner, an emulsion is formed between grease and water which appears as foam.
The washing ability of soap depends on foaming capacity, as well as the water used in cleaning. The salts of Ca and Mg disrupt the formation of micelle formation. The presence of such salts makes the water hard and the water is called hard water. These salts thus make the soap inefficient in its cleaning action.
Sodium Carbonate when added to hard water reacts with Ca and Mg and precipitates them out. Therefore sodium carbonate is used in the treatment of hard water.
This project aims at finding the foaming capacity of various soaps and the action of Ca and Mg salts on their foaming capacity.
Introduction
Soap is an anionic surfactant used in conjunction with water for washing and cleaning, which historically comes either in solid bars or in the form of a viscous liquid. Soap consists of sodium or potassium salts of fatty acids and is obtained by reacting common oils or fats with a strong alkaline in a process known as saponification. The fats are hydrolyzed by the base, yielding alkali salts of fatty acids (crude soap) and glycerol.
Bibliography: Parts of this project have been referred from foreign sources and have been included in this investigatory project after editing. The references of the sources are as follows: Books: Together With Lab Manual Chemistry-XI Comprehensive Chemistry – 11 Internet sources: www.wikipedia.org ,www.google.com , www.yahoo.com