Making Soap Essay

Making Soap

1.Define the following terms: triacylglycerol, saponification, surfactant, micelle.

Answer:

Triacylglycerol – An ester derived from glycerol and three fatty acids (from tri- and glyceride). Triglycerides are the main constituents of body fat in humans and other animals, as well as vegetable fat.

Saponification – A process that produces soap, usually from fats and lye. Soaps are sodium or potassium salts of long chain fatty acids. When triglycerides in fat/oil react with aqueous NaOH or KOH, they are converted into soap and glycerol. This is called alkaline hydrolysis of esters. Since this reaction leads to the formation of soap, it is called saponification.

Surfactant – Compounds that lower the surface tension between two liquids or between a liquid and a solid. Surfactants may act as detergents, wetting agents, emulsifiers, foaming agents, and dispersants.

Micelle – An aggregate (or supramolecular assembly) of surfactant molecules dispersed in a liquid colloid. A typical micelle in aqueous solution forms an aggregate with the hydrophilic "head" regions in contact with surrounding solvent, sequestering the hydrophobic single-tail regions in the micelle centre. This phase is caused by the

Since this process leads to the formation of a bar of soap, it is so called the saponification process. In the saponification process, there is a chemical reaction between fats, lye and water. The composition of oil was changed with the help of lye and this leads to the formation of soap. Cold process soap making takes 4-6 weeks to be cured before using to produce harder, better quality and longer-lasting bar of soap. Besides, something that we need to take note during cold process soap making is not to use hard water during the process as it will cause the unwanted substances within the hard water to take part in the