Soap is made through a chemical reaction called saponification where vegetable oils or animal fats are mixed with a strong alkali like sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide. This produces soap (a salt of fatty acids) and glycerol. Soaps act as emulsifiers that allow oil and water to mix, helping to remove grease stains during washing. Soapless detergents can also be made from crude oil instead of vegetable/animal sources, and use a sulfonate group instead of fatty acid salts to emulsify oil in water.

1. water
oil
soap molecule
What is soap?
If oil is added to water, the two liquids do not mix.
Because of this, grease stains can be difficult to remove
during washing.
Soaps are compounds
which act as emulsifiers.
This means that they
help the oil to mix
with the water.

2. Saponification is a chemical reaction that occurs when
a vegetable oil or animal fat(triglycerides , ester)
mixed with a strong alkali(NaOH, KOH).
The products of the reaction are soap (fatty acid
salt)and glycerol(free alcohol).

3. How are soaps made?
Soaps are usually made from vegetable fats and oils.
These consist of 3 fatty acid chains, held together by a
glycerol molecule.
The reaction used to make soap from fats and oils is
called saponification.

4. Sodium hydroxide (NaOH) gives "hard soap",
whereas, when
potassium hydroxide (KOH) is used, a soft soap or
liquid soap because of its greater solubility.

5. According to the rule “like dissolve likes”, soaps are able to clean
because they have
both a polar "head" (dissolves in water)
and a non-polar "tail' (dissolves in oils).

6. Mechanism of saponification

7. What are soapless detergents?
Soapless detergents can be made from crude oil, rather than
vegetable oils or animal fats.
sodium octadecylsulfonate
hydrophobic end interacts
with oil molecules
hydrophilic end interacts
with water molecules
Soapless detergents are still made of long, hydrophobic
carbon chains, but the hydrophilic end of the molecule is a
sulfonate:

8. The difference between Soaps and Detergents are as follows:
Soaps
1. Soap are made from fat and alkali by specification method
2. There are cheap.
3. There are not suitable for delicate clothes.
4. They are clean better in hot water.
Detergents
1. Detergents are carbonic compounds which are not alkaline.
2. They are suitable for delicate clothes.
4. They clean both in hot and cold water.
5. They clean the cloth even in hard water.