Naked Science Forum
Non Life Sciences => Chemistry => Topic started by: chris on 22/04/2017 10:19:02
-
Alan in Mexico is wondering:
How does soap work? How come they are good at cleaning?
Anyone like to lather up and answer this for him?
-
I remember in chemistry at college years ago actually watching a demonstration of making soap. Very nasty chemicals involved. Fats are broken down to a point where they dissolve in water and are left with hooks that latch onto the dirt so that when rinsed away they take grease and dirt with them. Probably not the best answer but it was a long time ago.
-
It is used for more than soap! See here
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lye
-
Lye gets used for lots of things, but it's no longer present in (most) soap, since it reacts with the fat during the soap-making process.
There's a lot of info here, including how it works.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soap
-
Alan in Mexico is wondering:
How does soap work? How come they are good at cleaning?
Anyone like to lather up and answer this for him?
Soap is composed of molecules which have two different ends. One end is called hydrophilic which means water loving while the other end is called hydrophobic which means water hating. The soap molecules align themselves such that they surround the dirt or oil in a way effected by the hydrophilic ends facing away from the oil and the hydrophobic ends facing toward the oil. In this way the soap surrounds the oil. For a better explanation and nifty pictures please see:
http://www.planet-science.com/categories/under-11s/chemistry-chaos/2011/06/soap---how-does-it-get-things-clean.aspx