Why is soap a surfactant

The main purpose of the surfactants is to decrease the surface and interfacial tension and stabilize the interface. A surfactant is a compound in cleaners that interacts with both water and soil to help them mix together and have the soil wash away with the water. When referring to cleaning , soil refers to anything that is making the object dirty; this can be dirt, oil, food, etc. Surfactants are necessary to remove dirt and grease.

Surfactants are surface-active agents. Surfactants are hydrophilic water-loving and lipophilic oil-loving ; they have a water-loving head that is attracted to water and an oil-loving head that is attracted to oil.

Learn more about surfactants here. The word surfactant is a shortened form of "surface-active agent", a surfactant is a chemical that stabilizes mixtures of oil and water by reducing the surface tension at the interface between the oil and water molecules.

Surfactants in cosmetics provide one or more of six different functions: Detergents for cleansing. Why is soap a surfactant? Category: style and fashion bath and shower. Soaps were the earliest surfactants and are obtained from fats which are known as glycerides because they are esters formed by the trihydric alcohol, propane-1,2,3-triol glycerol , with long chain carboxylic acids fatty acids.

Is baking soda a surfactant? Can you use dish soap as a surfactant? Is Vinegar a surfactant? What are natural surfactants? Is alcohol a surfactant? How do you make surfactant?

What are some examples of a surfactant? Here are some common examples of surfactants:. Soaps free fatty acid salts Fatty acid sulfonates the most common of which is sodium laryl sulfate, or SLS Ethoxylated compounds, such as ethoxylated propylene glycol. Is oil a surfactant? Why surfactants are used? How are surfactants harmful?

Water is able to get to the surface if surface tension is reduced. To do this, we use a group of chemicals called surface active agents, or surfactants. Surfactants change how water behaves. When a surfactant is added, the surface tension is reduced. Now water can spread out and wet the surface e. The water-fearing end is known as the hydrophobic end. Hydrophobic comes from two Greek roots, hydro- meaning water and -phobia meaning fearing.

The water-fearing end of the surfactant is made up of hydrocarbon chains. A hydrocarbon is a molecule that is made of hydrogen and carbon.

The chains love oil and grease and will try to stay away from water. The water-loving end is known as the hydrophilic end. The water-loving end of the chemical is attracted to water.

Once the surfactant is added to water, the water-fearing ends try to stay away from the water. They do this by organizing into the shape of a sphere with the water-loving ends on the outside and the water-fearing ends protected on the inside.

This spherical shape of surfactants is called a micelle. The micelle is important because it is what traps the soil. Starting material. The starting material for soap is either animal fat tallow or natural oils.

Syndets start with fatty alcohols which can be distilled from petroleum or derived from natural oils. Sodium Lauryl Sulfate can be made from both Coconut Oil or petroleum distillates.

A by-product of soap making is glycerin, a natural moisturizer. Syndets must be formulated with glycerin or other moisturizing ingredients. Reactions with metal ions. Syndets do not react like this so it is not a problem. Formulating flexibility. From a formulation standpoint, syndets are much more flexible than soaps. Soaps are generally solids at room temperature and are limited in the number of ingredients you can incorporate in them. Syndets are liquids that can be thickened and made solid.

As far as what you should get, that is up to you. If fragrance free is an issue, you could try the La Roche product. You could also try the Dove Bar or other syndet bar.

The key to these things is to try different products until you find something you like. Personal experimentation is your best option. See this page for an experiment demonstrating the difference between soap and detergent. Do you want to learn more about which beauty myths are true and which ones are bogus?

Thanks for doing such a great job. Mary Ellen — thanks so much for the kind words!! Perry and I would really your support.