Back to Basics: What Is Soap and How Does It Work? — The MacBath (2024)

FAQs

How does soap work for dummies? ›

The wheel-like structure formed by the circle of soap molecules around the dirt or oil droplet is called a micelle. When you wash your hands with soap, it dislodges the dirt, grease, oils, and disease-ridden fecal matter particles on your hands by creating these micelles.

Soap, by definition, is fat or oil mixed with an alkali. The oil comes from an animal or plant, while the alkali is a chemical called lye. In bar soap-making, the lye is sodium hydroxide. Liquid soap requires potassium hydroxide. Combining and then heating oil and lye results in soap.

'Soap' is defined as fat or oil combined with an alkali. The oil is derived from an animal or plant, whereas the alkali is a chemical known as lye. The lye used in the production of bar soap is sodium hydroxide. Potassium hydroxide is required for liquid soap.

Ancient people used these early soaps to clean wool or cotton fibers before weaving them into cloth, rather than for human hygiene. Not even the Greeks and Romans, who pioneered running water and public baths, used soap to clean their bodies.

a substance used for washing and cleansing purposes, usually made by treating a fat with an alkali, as sodium or potassium hydroxide, and consisting chiefly of the sodium or potassium salts of the acids contained in the fat. any metallic salt of an acid derived from a fat.

The chemical reaction that produces soap is called saponification. It occurs when a hot caustic alkali solution, such as caustic soda (sodium hydroxide), acts on natural fats or oils to produce a smooth, semisolid, fatty acid salt (soap) and glycerin, or glycerol.

Soap is formed by combining oils with lye. This process is called saponification. Triglycerides, which are the main constituents of oils, are converted into soap. In the traditional soap making process, triglycerides are treated with a strong base which is the lye.

Soap is the product of a chemical reaction between white, alkaline crystals called lye (also known by the chemical name sodium hydroxide) with triglycerides (the chemical name for oils, waxes and fats). The scientific word which describes this chemical reaction is saponification.

Soap molecules have on one end what's known as a polar salt, which is hydrophilic, or attracted to water. The other end of the molecule is a nonpolar chain of fatty acids or hydrocarbons, which is hydrophobic—meaning that it's repelled by water but attracted to grease and other oily substances.

lye, the alkaline liquor obtained by leaching wood ashes with water, commonly used for washing and in soapmaking; more generally, any strong alkaline solution or solid, such as sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide (see sodium; potassium).

What is the oldest soap ever found? ›

Evidence has been found that ancient Babylonians understood soap making as early as 2800 BC Archeologists have found soap-like material in historic clay cylinders from this time. These cylinders were inscribed with what we understand as saying, “fats boiled with ashes” (a method of making soap).

Here, it is revealed that Soap got his nickname not because he is fastidious in the shower, but because he is good at "cleaning house". In fact, this is something he does with "remarkable speed and accuracy in room clearance techniques and urban warfare tactics".

“Pin-shaped soap molecules have one end that bonds with water (the hydrophilic head) and the other end that bonds with oils and fats (the hydrophobic tail). When you build up a soapy lather, the molecules help lift the dirt, oil and germs from your skin. Then, rinsing with clean water washes it all away.”

This process of making soap is known as saponification. The common procedure involves heating animal fat or vegetable oil in lye (sodium hydroxide), therefore hydrolyzing it into carboxylate salts (from the combination of carboxylic acid chains with the cations of the hydroxide compound) and glycerol.

In a strictly chemical sense, any compound formed by the reaction of a water-insoluble fatty acid with an organic base or an alkali metal may be called a soap.

Making soap involves a chemical decomposition of fats and oils into their constituent parts, namely: fatty acids and glycerol. The fatty acids combine with an alkali, usually caustic soda, and the glycerol remains free.