The Two-Faced Detergent :: informative essay

Whether s crude oil particles are devoted to carpet fibers, wood floors or restroom sinks, they need to be removed. exactly how is this done? Most of us wipe or scrub a dirty surface with soap and urine without a second conceit around how they actually work to remove soil. The process of removing dirt begins at the molecular level. In order to understand how soap works, we must foremost acknowledge what soap actually does.By definition, soap is a potpourri of sodium or potassium salts and long chain organic acids. unitary example of such a soap is Sodium stearate, NaCH3(CH2)16CO2. As you grass see, a soap molecule is long. It has a carboxylate group called the heading group which is polar and hydrophilic, or irrigate attracting. The tail check is a fatty acid, which is non-polar and hydrophobic, or pissing repelling. In this way, soap is unique. One end attracts water while the other end pushes it away. Initially soaps where made by heating sodium hydroxide with beef fat . Beef fat contains an ester create between glycerol and stearic acid. The ester is then attacked by the sodium hydroxide, which releases the stearic acid as sodium stearate, How does all this help soap rifle things? Well soap dissolves in water. There is nothing special about this, since many substances have this property. Water is polar the H2O molecules have an draw play for other polar substances such as soap, which is polar on the atomic number 8 end of the molecule. When soap is added to water its head group, which is hydrophilic, is attracted to the water. Oil and grease etcetera is non-polar, so only non-polar substances will dissolve in it. Therefore, oil and water do not merge. This is why Oil does not dissolve when you conduct water over it. How does the oil wash off your hands if the water isnt soluble with the oil? This is where soap comes in. While soaps head is attracted to water its tail is attracted to non-polar substances such as oil. When oil and grease etc . mix with oil it creates a slightly polar substance because of the head group. This makes the oil soluble with water allowing you to wash off your hands with water and wash out the grease off. Most detergents sold in stores today are more(prenominal) complicated then just a mixture of sodium or potassium salts and long chain organic acids.