Soaps are made through saponification, the process of reacting fats or oils with alkalis. They are cheap and biodegradable but do not work well in hard water which causes insoluble scum. Detergents are made through chemical processes using petroleum products or natural esters reacted with alkalis. They contain surfactants, phosphates, and other additives. Detergents are more effective than soaps for hard water, but many varieties are non-biodegradable and can cause environmental harm. Both products have advantages like low costs but also disadvantages like limited cleaning power or environmental impacts.

1. Soaps and detergents
Group members
Damarnie Brown
Tyrone Rowe
Sheshona Tomlinson
Monique Lennon

2. What is a Soap?
 A soap is compound of alkali and
fat, used with water as a cleaning
agent.

3. What is it made of?
 Saponification is the process by which
soap is made. Soaps are made from the
alkaline of natural esters as fats and oils.
These esters are made from large
carboxylic acid molecules containing
more than ten carbon atoms in their
hydrocarbon chains, and glycerol - an
alcohol containing 3 OH groups in its
molecule.

4. Advantages of the soap
 Soaps are cheap.
 Can be manufactured from renewable sources
 Don’t cause skin allergies.
 Soaps are biodegradable and so will not perish in the
environment.

5. Disadvantages of the
soap
 They do not remove all types of dirt.
 They don’t clean very efficiently in hard water.
Hard water contains calcium and magnesium ions
that react with the soap to form insoluble salts
called scum.
 They form gels which clog sewerage systems.

6. Detergent
s

7. What is a detergent?
 A detergent is a cleaning agent. There are two
types of detergents: soapy detergent [made from
the hydrolysis of natural esters] and the soapless
detergent.

8. What is it made of?
 In general detergents are made from hydrocarbon products
which react with highly concentrated sulphuric acid to
convert them to an organic acid based on the –SO3H
group.

9. Soapy AND SOAPLESS
DETERGENTS
 Soapless Detergents  Soapy Detergents
 Made from petroleum  Soapy detergents are made
from reacting natural esters
products that have been
with an alkali.
treated with
concentrated sulphuric  Usually comes in the
acid. form of bars and is
biodegradable.
 Most are non-
biodegradable and  It is converted to scum when
used with hard water.
comes in the liquid
form.

10. What is found in a
detergent?
 Detergents does not contain 100% active
detergent ingredients.
 Detergents usually contains 20% surfactant which
is the active cleaning ingredient. 30% phosphates
which is added to soften hard water. 40% sodium
sulphate for keeping it dry and10% bleaching
agents and optical brighteners.

11. Advantages of the
detergent
 They are very cheap.
 There is no wastage when using hard water since
detergents doesn’t form scum.

12. Disadvantages of the
detergent
 It is non- biodegradable which means that it is
resistant to bacterial breakdown and if it ends up
in rivers or lakes cause foaming.
 Prone to extensive algal growth due to the high
phosphate content which provides nutrients for
the algal.

13. dB ye!
G oo