I would like to express my greatest gratitude to the people who have helped &

supported me throughout my project. I respect and thanks to principal and I am

grateful to my chemistry teacher, Mrs. Jamila for her continuous support for the
project, from initial advice & contacts in the early stages of conceptual inception &
through ongoing advice & encouragement to this day.

I wish to thank my parents for their undivided support and interest

who inspired me and encouraged me to go my own way, without whom I
would be unable to complete my project.

A special thank of mine goes to my best friend who helped me in

completing the project & he exchanged his interesting ideas, thoughts & made
this project easy and accurate.

At last but not the least I want to thank my friends who appreciated me
for my work and motivated me and finally to God who made all the things
possible.

-Rishabh Mishra
This is to certify that the project on “Soaps and Detergents” submitted by “Rishabh Mishra
th
” of class 12 Science is a pursue and sincere work of his intelligence and
deep study of the topic. He has been working under my supervision
during the session 2018-19. The material involved in his report is entirely his
contribution. The results are satisfactory and has been checked by me.

Mrs. Jamila
(Subject Teacher)
4
HISTORY OF SOAPS AND DETERGENTS

SOAPS TODAY

TOTAL FATTY MATTER (TFM)

BATHING BARS

TRANSPARENT SOAPS

BABY SOAPS

MEDICINAL SOAPS

HOW SOAPS WORKS?

DISADVANTAGES OF SOAPS

SOAP PAWDER AND WASHING POWDER

SYNTHETIC DETERGENTS

HEALTH AND DETERGENTS

COMPACT DETERGENTS

DETERGENTS AND ENVIRONMENT

4
 In olden days clothes were cleaned by beating them on rocks in the
nearest stream. This practice is followed even today in many villages.
Sometimes plants such as soap nuts are used as cleaning agents. Such
plants contain saponins, chemical compounds that produce a soapy lather.
These saponins were probably the first detergents used.

Ashes of plants contain potassium carbonate (K2 Co3) and sodium

carbonate (Na Co ). The carbonate ion present in both these compounds,
2 3
reacts with water to form an alkaline solution. The basic solution has
detergent properties. These alkaline plant ashes were used as cleaning
agents by the earliest civilizations at least 4000 years ago. Europeans were
using plant ashes to wash their clothes as recently as 100 years ago.
Sodium carbonate is still sold as washing soda and is being used for
cleansing purposes. The discovery of disease causing micro organisms and
subsequent public health practices brought about an increased interest in
cleanliness by the late eighteenth century. Soap was in common use by the
middle of the nineteenth century.
The first written record of soap can be seen in the writings of the
Roman pliny the Elder. He described the Phoenicians’ synthesis of soap by
using goat tallow and ashes. By the second centaury A. D, sodium
carbonate was heated with time (from limestone) to produce sodium
hydroxide (lye). The sodium hydroxide was heated with animal fats or
vegetable oils to produce soap. Other societies made soap in much the
same manner.
The large scale manufacture of soap was not possible until the
discovery of practical methods of manufacturing alkalies on a large scale.
This did not take place until about 1800. Soaps are compounds formed by
the reaction of bases with fats, chemically known as fatty acid esters. The
most important fatty acid esters. The three most important fatty acid esters
are :-

5
Palmitin [( C H COO) C H )
15 31 3 3 5

Stearin [( C H COO) C H ) ;and

17 35 3 3 5

Olein [( C H COO) C H )
17 33 3 3 5

They are found in lard, tallow, olive oil, cotton seed oil, and other
animal and vegetable fats or oils. Soap is usually made by the reaction of
animal fat or vegetable oil with sodium hydroxide. The process of treating
fats with bases or alkalies is called ‘Saponification’. Vegetable oils, with
unsaturated carbon chains, produce soft soaps. Animal fats yield hard
soaps. Coconut oils with shorter carbon chains, yield soaps that are more
soluble in water.

In modern commercial soap making,

the fats and oils are often hydrolysed
with super heated steam. The fatty acids
then are neutralized to make soap. The
process takes place in large cylindrical
vessel. The next step in the manufacture
of soap is called graining or Saltingout.
This involves the addition of common
salt (NaCl). During this process the soap becomes insoluble in brine and
separates from the solution. The soap may be washed several times with
brine to rid it of free alkali.
The molten soap may be run into large frames from which bars may be
cut, or it may be run over cold rollers, producing thin sheets which are
scraped to form soap chips. The molten soap may also be squirted from a
nozzle as a spray into hot air to form powdered soap.
Soft or liquid soaps are made by using potassium hydroxide (KOH)
instead of lye. Potassium soap produces a finer lather. They are used alone
or in combination with sodium soaps in liquid soaps, shampoo soaps and
shaving creams.
Very often certain foreign materials are added to soap as it leaves the
reaction kettle. These fillers may be such inert adulterants as chalk and
suphates of sodium, calcium or barium. Another very common filler is talc

6
(magnesium acid silicate). Sodium silicate is also used. Silicates give
firmness to soap and enables it to hold more water. Rosin is also
sometimes added to soap especially to laundry soap. Although not a fatty
acid, it reacts with sodium hydroxide to form a sodium salt which
resembles soap in many respects. It is soluble and has a high frothing
power. The cleansing power of rosin soap is much lower than that of
ordinary soap. The presence of rosin in any quantity is undesirable. If soap
contains more than 15 percent rosin, it is known as low grade soap.
Permitted dyes are added to soaps to impart than a pleasing colour. The
most expensive ingredient of toilet soap is the perfume, which is
responsible for its characterstic odour.

Soaps are graded in terms of total fatty matter or TFM. Bureau of

Indian Standards (BIS) has catogorised bath or toilet soaps as ‘normal’,
‘baby, transparent, and antibacterial soaps. The last three are called
specialty soaps targeted to specific users. A toilet soap is a cosmetic by
law and it must fulfil the requirements of the relevant Indian standard.
T. F. M or total fatty matter is a measure for identifying the amount of
fatty matter present in soaps. TFM of a sample of soap can be determined
as follows. A known weight of the soap is dissolved in water and the
solution is treated with dilute sulphuric acid. The soap decomposes to
sodium suplphate and fatty acids. The fatty acids so formed can be
estimated. From this TFM can be calculated. On the basis TFM, toilet
soaps can be classified into three grades.
Grade 1 TFM Moisture Free salt (NaCl)
I above 80 Max:13.5 Max:0.7
II 65 – 80 13- 15 0.8
III 55- 65 15-20 1.5

Grade I toilet soap should have TFM value above 80 percent, except in
ayurvedic soap. Any soap which has a TFM value less than 55 percent is
not considered as toilet soap at all. TFM is what lends soap its soapy feel
and it is the TFM and the insoluble matter in the soap that largely
distinguishes one soap from the other. The three grades should have less
than 0.05 % of free alkali as sodium hydroxide and less than 1% of
carbonate alkali. The salt content should not go above 1.5 %.

7
 Today 85 percent of bathing soaps available in the market are not toilet
soaps even if they are promoted by some celebrities. The bathing bar shall
be a product containing acceptable surface active agents which could be
used for bathing purposes. One or more of the following surfactants
confirming to the relevant Indian standards, can be used -

 Soap of fatty acids.

 Fatty acid ester sulphonates

 Fatty alkanolamide

 Fatty alcohol ethoxylates

 Sarcosinates

 Taurides

 Fatty isothionates

 Alpha olefin sulphonates

 Alcohol sulphates; and

 Amphoterics such as betaines.

In addition to surfactants and
perfume, the bathing bar may contain
other ingredients such as electrolytes,
bar structuring and processing aids,
colouring matter, permitted
antioxidants, preservatives, permissible
germicides super fatting agents,
humectants and such additional substances that are declared on the label.
All ingredients except moisture should be declared. All of them should be
non-injurious to skin.

8
Types of bathing bars:
There are two types of bathing bars (1) made up of partial soap and
partial synthetic detergent (syndet). (2) Made up of wholly synthetic
detergent. The first type is usually known as combination bars or combars.
These contain 50 percent TFM and 30-35 percent mineral matter like talc
and Kaolin. They are simply structured
toilet soaps. Bureau of Indian standards
(BIS), warns the customers of bathing
bars. “It is important to guard against
the removal of the beneficial skin lipids
by bathing bar and over cleaning
resulting in defatting of the skin is
undesirable”.
High clay content in bathing bar may reduce its solubility and hence
increase its durability. But after bathing with a bathing bar, whole body
may be coated with a white powder, (two-in-one soap + talcum powder)
Children and old people cannot tolerate high syndet containing bathing
bar, because it would decrease their skin. Special processes have been
developed by Indian scientists to upgrade cheaper and easily available raw
materials to make good quality toilet soap. Techniques have been
developed to obtain good quality fatty acids for soap making from fish oil,
neem oil and Karanja oil. India is the second largest producer of castor oil,
the first being Brazil. A process was developed in India to convert castor
oil into good quality soap making oil. Textured castor oil is found to be
very good for making transparent soap.

Transparent soap is a clear soap with high glycerin content often

referred to as glycerin soap. Transparent
soap is less drying than opaque soap and
can have additional emollient oils added
to it such as Shea butter or jojoba oil. It
is basically partly soap and partly
solvent. Sodium hydroxide causes big
crystals to form in soap and that is why
the soap becomes opaque. In order to

9
make it transparent, we have to dissolve the soap in enough solvent to
make the crystals so small that light will feely pass through the soap which
makes it look transparent. The solvent used can be glycerol, alcohol or
glycerol alcohol mixture.

Bay soaps are not much different

from ordinary soaps, but they are
comparatively of high purity. Baby’s
skin is soft and sensitive. Hence the
oil used for making baby soap should
be clean and bleached. No pigments
are allowed in baby soap and
fragrance materials added should be
bare minimum. Free alkali content present in baby soap should not exceed
0.05 percent Ordinary soap may contain rosin and metallic impurities such
as nickel. But a bay soap should not contain such things. Actually baby
soap should be cheaper than luxury soap because costly perfumes or
colouring materials are not present in it.

As per many advertisements medicinal soaps are supposed to contain

deodorants antiseptics and some medicines that cure skin diseases. They
say that medicinal soaps are
cleansing agents well as
antiseptics. Here soap is treated
as a carrier of medicines that is it
serves the purpose an ointment or
oil. But we should remember that
soap is essentially a cleansing
agent. After applying soap to the
body, immediately we used to
wash with water, when together
with dirt the medicines if any
would also be washed out. We are not giving enough time for the
medicine, to be absorbed by the skin. Then how can they cure skin
diseases? Germicidal soap usually contains the germicide Trichloro

10
 o
carbanilide (TCC) upto 1 percent. When warmed to 60 C, It is converted
into chloromine which is toxic to skin.
Herbal soaps contain some fragrant essential oils. Some soaps contain
‘Shekakai (Acacia sinuate) which has saponin as an active agent. Saponin
is a good emulsifier. Soft soap: - Soft soaps are usually used in shaving
soaps and in liquid soaps. They are more soluble in water than ordinary
soaps. While ordinary soaps are sodium soaps, soft soaps are potassium
soaps.

Dirt and grime usually adhere to skin, clothing and other surfaces
because they are combined with greases and oils – body oil, cooking fats,
lubricating greases and a variety of similar substances – which act a little
like sticky glues. Since
oils are not miscible
with water, washing
with water alone does
little good.
Soap molecule have
a split personality. One
end is ionic and
dissolves in water. The
other end is like a
hydrocarbon and
dissolves in oils. If we
imagine the ionic end of
the molecule as ‘head’ and hydrocarbon chain as ‘tail’, then we can
explain the clearing action of soap clearly. The hydrocarbon ‘tails’ stick
into the oil. The ionic ‘heads’ remain in the acqueons phase. In this
manner, the oil is broken into tiny droplets and dispersed throughout the
solution. The droplets don’t coalerec because of the repulsions of the
charged groups (the caboxl anions) on their surfaces. The oil and water
form an emulsion, with soap acting as an emulsifier. With the oil no longer
“gluing” it to the surface, the dirt can be removed easily. This mechanism
applies to synthetic detergents also.

11
 For cleaning clothes and for other purposes, soap has been largely
replaced by synthetic detergents. This is because soaps have two rather
serious short comings. One of these is that, in acidic solutions, soaps are
converted in to fatty acids. The fatty acids unlike soap (sodium salt of fatty
acids) do not ionise much. Lacking the split personality, they can’t
emulsify the oil and dirt that is they do not exhibit any detergent action.
What is more these fatty acids are in soluble in water and separate as a
greasy scum.
The second and more serious disadvantage of soap is that it does not
work very well in hard water. Hard water contains certain metallic ions,
particularly magnesium, calcium and iron ions. The soap anions react with
these metal ions, to form greasy, insoluble curds. These deposits make up
the familiar bathtub ring. They leave the freshly washed hair sticky, and
forms kettle fur.

Soap powders are not be

confused with powdered soaps,
which is merely soap in powdered
form. Most soap powders are
mixtures of soap and alkali
substances known as builders. Such
builders include sodium carbonate,
trisodium phosphate, borax and
sodium sulphate. Most frequently
used one is sodium corbonate. Some
washing powders also contain a
beaching agent, such as sodium perborate. These usually are called oxygen
washes and often contain part of the word oxygen in the commercial name.
As a rule, the cheaper the washing powder, the larger the proportion of
alkali present. The builder is added to soften hard water and to act as cheap
detergent, or cleansing agent. It should be remembered, however, that the
builder is a less efficient cleansing agent than soap.

12
 Detergent is a cleansing agent. In that sense soap is also a detergent.
But the word detergent usually refers to a synthetic substance other than
soap. A detergent contains an active agent called surfactant, that wets the
fabric, emulsifies oily matter, solubilizes grime and keeps the soil in
suspension. This active agent contains two groups one oil loving lipophilic
and the other water loving – hydrophilic.
The first synthetic detergents synthesized were derived from fats by
reduction with hydrogen, followed by reaction with sulphuric acid,
and then neutralization.
Example;
> Sodium lauryl sulphate (Sodium dodecyl sulphate)
Thus sodium lauryl sulphates are the first such detergents synthesized.
But this process was found to be expensive. Within a few years, cheap
synthetic detergents were produced from petroleum products.
Made largely from a material
called aeid clurry which is
chemically linear alkly benzence
(LAB). LAB is sulphonated to get
linear alkyl benzene sulphonate
(LABS). This is reacted with
sodiumhydroxide or sodium
carbonate (Sodaash) to form its
sodium salt soluble in water. The
products for use in homes and commercial laundries usually contain much
more than LABS molecules. The LABS is called a surface active agent or
surfactant. In addition to the LABS modern detergent formulations contain
a number of other substances to improve detergency, to bleach, to lessen
redeposition of dirt, to brighten, or simply to reduce the cost of the
formulation.
An substance added to a surfactant to increase its detergency is called a
builder. Common builders are the Phosphates. An example is sodium
tripoly phosphates (Na3 P3 O10). It ties up Ca2+ and Mg 2+ in soluble
complexes this softening water. It also produces a mild alkalinity, proving
a favourable environment for detergent action. Other builders and fillers

13
added include soda ash, sodium silicate, sodium chloride, sodium sulphate
and Zeolite (special form of clay - hydrated sodium aluminium silicate.
Detergents are graded on the basis of their active matter, and poly
phosphate content. Detergents can be used in hard water, but removal from
fabrics requires a to lot of rincing. Detergents can be used in cold and hot
water as well as acidie and alkaline conditions.
Cotton fabrics can be washed with detergents heavy with phosphates
and soda a sh. Wool, nylon and silk fabrics should be washed with
detergents, which have less alkali, less phosphates, and less soda ash.
Heavy duty detergent powders are two types. one suitable for
handwashing and the other for machine washing. Detergents used for hand
washing should give copious lather. That would satisfy the aesthelic sense
of the customer. But the fact is that the amount of form is not a measure of
the effectiveness of the detergent. however a small amount of foam is
necessary to trap the dirt and carry it away during rinsing. But detergents
used in washing machine should not produce much foam, because it may
damage the machine parts, especially of the front loading machines.
The optimum concentration of active matter is found to be0.05 percent
or half gram per litre or 5 gram in ten liters. 50 g of a popular low priced
detergent powder is needed in 10 litres of water for optimim economy and
efficiency. Preference of sodium triploy phosphate in detergent increases
its clean ring powder. For localized cleaning it is better to use detergent
bar.

14
 TYPICAL COMPOSITION DIFFERENT TYPES A DETERGENTS

DETERGENTS BARS.
HIGH PRICED MEDIUM LOW PRICED HIGH PRICED LOW PRICED
POWDER PRICED POWDER BARS BARS
POWDER

Active 15-18% 11-14% 8-10% 18-20% 12-15%

Matte
r
Phosphate/ 15-20% 5-8% Nil 10-15% 5-15%
Zeolites

Soddash 5-10% 12-20% 30-70% Nil 5-18%

Sodium 4-5% 15-30% Nil - -
Silicate
Sodium 24-40% 23-36% 3-5% 2-3% 2-3%
Sulphate
Sodium Nil Nil 7-50% 5-10% 10-20%
Chloride
Clay Nil 15-20% 10-20% 30-50% 10-60%
Moisture 8-10% 10-15% 15-20% 5-10% 10-12%
Starch 10-15% 5-10%
Wax 1-3% 0-2%

POWDER

GRADE PERCENTAGE MAXIMUM

ACTIVE PERCENTAGE OF SODIM
MATTER CABONATE ALLOWED.

1 19 30
2 16 40
3 15 50
4 12 60

15
 Concentrated or compact detergents contain
about 25 percent of active matter; and the rest
consists of builders and fillers. Now a days in
order to reduce packaging cost, compact
detergents containing 40 to 60 percent of active
matter have been introduced by leading
companies.

Use of phosphates, enzymes, bleachers, and brightening agents in

detergents is a subject of debate among environmentalists. Even though
phosphates are perfect builders they suffer from one overwhelming defect:
they are superb, nutrients for the algae and other small plants and grow on
the surfaces of lakes and streams. Algae, nourished by a steady supply of
phosphates, can cover the surface of body of water and prevant atmosheric
oxygen from reaching the marine life below the surface. The resulting
death of fish and other aquatic animals sometimes occurring on a large
scal in lakes and rivers covered by algae, has led many countries to ban the
use of phosphates as detergent builders. This type of water pollution is
known as Eutrophieation. In india 80 percent of the detergents marketed
are phosphate free, hence eutrophieation from detergents does not happen.
The most promising substitute for phosphates is a class of compounds of
aluminium, silicon and oxygen known as zeolites.
Chemical composition of a detergent does not correctly reveal its
cleaning capacity. For a practical and realistic evaluation, it is necessary to
determine the actual performance of detergents. Detergency is measured
by reflectance. Infact there is not much difference in detergency between
low grade and high grade detergents.
All the surfactants discussed so far, including soap are anionic
surfactants; The working part of the molecule is an anion with a nonpolar
part and anionic end. Some liquid detergents contain nonionic surfactants.
Examples are alcohol ethoxylates and alkyl phenol ethoxylates. The
several oxygen atoms, by their attraction for water molecules, make that
end of the molecule water soluble. Nonionic surfactants are great for

16
removing oily soil from fabrics. They are more soluble in cold water
than in hot water.
There are eat ionic surfactants also, in which the working part of
the molecule is a action. The most common of these are called
quaternary ammonium salts. An example of such an eat ionic
surfactant is hexadecyl timethylammoniumchloride. These are not
very good detergents, but they have a degree of germicidal action.
Sometimes they are used along with nonionic surfactants, as
cleaners and disinfectants in good and dairy industries. Eat ionies
cannot be used with anionic surfactants.
Of all the house hold chemicals, the detergents and related
cleaning compounds make up the greatest volume. Extensive use of
these chemicals has led to an increasing number of health and
environmental problems. Hence care should be taken to use them in
homes with proper regard to the directions or precautions given on
their labels. It would be nice if everyone knew a lot of chemistry.

17
 Bibliography
 www.google.co.in
 NCERT books
 Pradeep manuals
 www.slideshare.com
 Teachers help

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