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Gabrielle Brown

Ms. Hodsden

English IV

20 October 2009

A world without cleanliness would be an unbearable one: from the reeking stench to the

rampant disease, life would be miserable, if at all existent. Thanks to a bit of natural chemistry,

people discovered soap long ago and since then have been developing new ways to alter and

harness the power of this most critical cleansing agent. Since the time of soap’s discovery,

humans have created specialized soaps, scented soaps, barred soaps, pigmented soaps, and even

a new cleansing agent altogether: detergent. Soaps and detergents have been a part of human

lifestyles for many centuries. They have an interesting way of operating, can be made in various

ways, and are used for a large array of tasks and specialized work in today’s modern world.

Soaps and detergents must undergo a series of basic steps in order to clean a substance:

wetting the dirtied material, detaching the dirt particles from the material, and keeping the dirt

particles in the water until they are rinsed away. When cleaning a material with soap or

detergent, one must first begin by using water to make the substance wet. Within soaps and

detergents are surfactants (“Detergent” 164). A surfactant, shorthand for ‘surface-active agent’,

is a double-natured molecule where one part of it is soluble, or dissolvable, in water and another

part of it is not. The salts of fatty acids are the surfactants in soaps (Ball), and synthetically made

molecules that mimic the design of soap’s fatty acids make up the surfactants in detergents

(Farhat 133). A surface-active agent is composed of a head and a long tail. The head end of the

surfactant is charged negatively and reacts considerably with positively charged hydrogen in

water molecules, thus making the end water-soluble. The tails of surfactants do not have an
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affinity for water, but rather for oily hydrocarbon liquids and greases with chemical structures

resembling their own, making the tail end of a surfactant water-insoluble. Surfactants are

amphiphiles, or molecules with dual natures, and it is because of this property that surfactants are

able to lower the surface tension of water. Electrical forces of attraction between molecules hold

all liquids together. Surface tension is a net inward force of the surface molecules of a liquid that

occurs because surface molecules only have molecules below them to attract to (Ball). By

lowering water’s surface tension, surfactants allow for the material being cleaned to be

penetrated by water more thoroughly.

The next stage in the cleaning process of soaps and detergents is the stage where the dirt

is removed, and surfactants play a key role yet again. The head ends of surfactants are

hydrophilic, or attracted to water, whereas the tail ends are hydrophobic, or repelled by water;

both of these phenomena are caused by electrical attractions between molecules. The

hydrophobic tails of surfactants do not attract to water, but instead to the particles of dirt within

the soiled material. The hydrophilic heads, meanwhile, attract to the water surrounding the soiled

material, which then pulls the tail end, along with the dirt the tail has attracted, off of the material

and into the water. Agitation aids in speeding up this process by fracturing the dirt into minute

particles and by helping the hydrophilic parts of the surfactant molecules draw the dirt off of the

material (“Detergent” 164). Once surfactants have removed the dirt, the material is one step

away from being clean.

The final stage in the cleansing process involves the surfactants creating a thin layer of

molecules surrounding the dirt particles to separate them and to prevent them from immersing

into the once-soiled material again. The dirt particles that are surrounded by surfactants are then

suspended in the wash water until rinsed away (Detergent 164). By the simple process of wetting
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a material, detaching dirt particles from it, and holding the particles in water until rinsed away,

soaps and detergents make excellent cleaners and stain removers.

Soaps can be made in a large array of fashions, but the same general process takes place

whether one is making soap in a traditional fashion or in the industrialized manner. “A true soap

is composed of a base and a fat,” says long-time recreational soap maker, Steven Mitchem. The

“base” ingredient is alkaline moieties such as sodium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide, sodium

carbonate, and triethanolamine ( Farhat 126). Found naturally in wood ashes, this alkaline

element is more commonly called lye (Hobson 11). The “fat” ingredients of soap are

triglycerides, triesters of fatty acids, which are obtained from tallow (animal fat) or plant oils

such as coconut, palm, and kernel (Farhat 125). Soap is the salt of fatty acid (124) derived by

using the base to break the bonds between acid and alcohol sections of esters in a chemical

reaction known as saponification (LeMay 855). Saphonification works by hydrolysis, which is a

reaction where water is added to a reactant and that reactant becomes decomposed (p 950). After

saponification, the reactants hydrolyze into glycerin and sodium stearate, commonly known as

soap, as seen in figure (A) (Farhat 126). Perfumes, pigments, and other ingredients are not

critical to the creation of soap, but rather are additives that make the soap more appealing;

accessory ingredients can improve the cleaning ability of the soap, make it a nicer color, add a

desired aroma to it, or give the soap skin-softening characteristics (Hobson 9).

Soap making style can be classified in two basic methods: the traditional style, and the

industrial style. The traditional style of making soap is a very simple one: the maker heats the fat

into a liquid, combines the lye with water, and then mixes the two while over heat and adds in

any perfume or extraneous ingredients (Mitchem). In the industrial process of making soap, the

process begins with the pre-heating of fats and the catalyst, a reaction rate increaser, and then
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sending these materials to a machine called a hydrolyzer. As the name implies, the fat is

hydrolyzed here by the addition of deaerated-demineralized water creating fatty acids and

glycerin (Farhat 127). The fatty acids are flushed out of the top of the tank and are sent to a flash

tank, where the water is removed. The fatty acids are then deaerated to prevent darkening by

interactions with oxygen, and then distilled in a high-vacuum still. They are then sent to the

bottom of the still and cooled down to room temperature in two parallel condensers (129). The

fatty acids must then undergo a neutralization reaction, which is a chemical reaction between a

base and an acid that terminates the distinguishing qualities of both substances. The products of

neutralization reactions are water and a salt (LeMay 951); in this particular instance, the salt is

soap. The fatty acids next go to a high-speed mixer neutralizer where they become neutralized by

the addition of fifty-percent caustic soda. Caustic soda is evaporated soda lye in which the active

ingredient is an alkaline (Hobson 11). At this stage in the manufacturing process, the substance is

called neat soap (sixty to sixty-three-percent total fatty matter) and is sent to a blender to create

an even neutralization. From here, the soap can be removed for conventional soap production or

undergo further treatment by high pressures and temperatures, drying, air combination, and

cooling. The soap is then cut into bars, cooled further, stamped, and wrapped, creating a final

product of aerated bar soap (Farhat 129). Whether traditional or industrial, it is interesting to

observe that the same chemical reactions that were discovered centuries ago still take place in

order for soap to be made.

The manufacturing of detergent varies greatly with that of soap. Detergents are most

importantly comprised of water-soluble surfactants, surfactants that can easily dissolve in

aqueous solvent. These water-soluble surfactants are composed synthetically by attaching a

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hydrophilic group to a hydrophobic material. Another key factor of detergency is the balance in

molecular weight between the hydrophilic portion and the hydrophobic portion (Farhat 133).

The manufacturing of detergent begins with the making of detergent slurry, which

contains liquid surfactants. These liquid surfactants are alkylbenzene sulfonates and are produced

by sulfonating (Fathat 153), adding a sulfuric acid group (“Sulfation”), linear alkylates and then

neutralizing with a caustic solution composed of sodium hydroxide. Next, the products of

sulfuric acid and sulfonic acid are aged for fifteen to thirty minutes and then diluted with water.

The mixture is then sent to the acid settler where gravity separates the two acids due to the mass

difference between the heavier spent sulfuric acid and the lighter sulfonic acid. The linear alkyl

sulfonates are then neutralized with a base such as sodium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide,

ammonium hydroxide, or alkanolamines. The resulting solution salts then move on to a spray-

drying process: the detergent slurry is added into a machine called a crutcher along with other

additives where the ingredients are mixed. The blend is then sent to a stirred storage container

and continuously pumped into a spray dryer. At high-pressure levels, the slurry is sprayed onto a

vertical drying tower, usually countercurrent in design. From the drying towers, the newly made

detergent granules are put into a mixer where more additives, such as perfume, are combined as

well. Finally, the detergent is packaged and put on the market (Farhat 153). This process makes

the detergents people use everyday effective and readily available.

The widespread use of soaps and detergents has only grown since the ages of their

discoveries, as they are both used for a variety of tasks in today’s modern and rapidly changing

world. The cleansing abilities of soaps and detergents are used in an impressive array of fields

and specialized work, as well as for everyday hygiene and maintenance. Presently, detergent

usage has dominated that of soap; in fact, most of the commercial hand, facial, and body ‘soaps’,
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toothpastes, shaving creams, etc. are actually detergents (Mitchem). However, soap still remains

a large part of society due to recreational soap makers who enjoy making their own recipes and

formulas, and also through soap makers who venture to introduce their products into the

detergent-ruled market.

Certain detergents are used to help clean up oil spills and leaks that would otherwise take

nature months to recover from. The popular dish detergent “Dawn” is used to clean off animals,

such as reptiles, fish, mammals, amphibians, and birds, that would suffer adverse side effects and

eventually die from being coated in the grease. Cleaning birds that have been covered in grease

is a daunting task, but Alice B. Berkner of the International Bird Rescue Research Center

exclaimed that when washing the birds with “Dawn” detergent, the “oil seemed to fall off the

feathers!” When cleaning animals with the detergent, rinsing was made easier and skin irritation

did not occur. The detergent is also convenient for the fact that it is inexpensive and easily

obtained (Berkner). Thanks to the employment of detergent, the mortality rate of birds and other

wildlife after oil pollution has dramatically decreased.

Soaps and detergents are also used in the field of aromatherapy. Aromatherapy is the

study of scent where the skilled and controlled use of essential oils is utilized for both physical

and emotional heath and wellness. Essential oils are the “essence” of a particular plant form from

which they are derived. They are tiny droplets contained in glands, glandular hairs, sacs, or veins

of various plant parts (Cooksley). Aromatherapists utilize the ability of soaps and detergents to

carry essential oils, as well as herbs and parts of plants. Soap and detergent can house desired

perfumes that the therapists use to treat their patients with.

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Today, soaps and detergents can be found in all manner of public and private residences,

including schools, churches, offices, restaurants, and homes and have become a part of many

peoples’ day-to-day lives.

People have made many noteworthy advances in the science behind soaps and detergents

since each of their discoveries. These advances would not have been made possible without first

possessing an understanding of how soaps and detergents clean, how soaps and detergents are

made, or of the applications of soaps and detergents in the surrounding world. Soaps have been

detrimental to the survival of humans for centuries, and now, along with detergents, they will

continue to play their roles (and probably develop a couple of new ones) in human life for

generations to come.
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Works Cited

Ball, Philip. The Self-Made Tapestry: Pattern Formulation In Nature. NY: Oxford University

Press, 1999. questiaschool.com, 18 October 2009.

Berkner, Alice B. “It Was Pretty “Dark” Before “Dawn.” International Bird Rescue Research

Center. 2009. 7 November 2009. http://www.ibrrc.org/index.html

Cooksley, Valerie Gennari. Aromatherapy: A Lifetime Guide to Healing With Essential Oils.

Paramus, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1996.

“Detergent and Soap.” World Book Encyclopedia. Chicago: World Book, Inc., 2006.

Farhat Ali, El Ali, Speight. Handbook of Industrial Chemistry, Organic Chemicals. New York,

NY: The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc., 2005.

Hobson, Phyllis. Making Soaps & Candles. Pownal, VT: Storey Communications, Inc., 1973.

LeMay, Robblee, Beall, Brower. Chemistry: Connections to Our Changing World. Upper Saddle

River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2000.

Mitchem, Steven. Personal Interview. 29 September 2009.

“Sulfation.” Dictionary.com: An Ask.com Service. 2009. 30 September 2009.

http://www.dictionary.reference.com/browse/sulfation
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Figure (A):

3NaOH + C17 H35 COO3 C3 H5  3C17 H35 COONa + C3 H5 (OH)3

Sodium Glyceryl Stearate Sodium Stearate Glycerin
Hydroxide