What Is Soap Made of and How Does It Clean? (Coursework Sample)

How Soap Works
Water is generally high tension thus meaning the water molecules tend to stick together rather than wet other surfaces. Based on this, water cannot be used to clean on its own. Soap comes in as a suitable add on because of its chemical composition which gives it a surfactant aspect that allows it to better allow the water molecules to “wet other surfaces thus increasing water’s ability to dissolve dirty, oily stains” Chemistry Explained, (n.d.). Soaps are generally made up of a two body structure. That is a hydrophilic head that is water loving and a hydrophobic yet lipophobic tail (World of Molecules, 2014). Soaps have been used for cleaning purposes in different capacities with most people have the slimmest of ideas on how it works. This paper discuss how soap work in relation to analyzing three experiments, pepper and water, oil and water and an aluminum floating boat.
The effectiveness of soap and water at cleaning is reliant on how the soap acts as an emulsifying agent. An emulsifier is capable of dispersing one liquid into another immiscible liquid (Helmenstine, 2014). Since soap molecules have both properties of non-polar and polar molecules, micelles will form during cleaning (Fisher, 2014). This arises due to the hydrophilic tail attracting oil molecules, which usually attract dirt, and suspending them in such a way that they can be removed.
From the first experiment involving water and pepper, it is noticed that the pepper did not dissolve in the water meaning the pepper was hydrophobic. Also the pepper did not sink reflecting the high surface tension of water. However, on introducing soap, there was a noticeable movement of the pepper towards the edges of the cup indicating that the surface tension has changed and water molecules pull back from the soap (Johnson, 2014).
Observations from the second experiment showed that water and oil do not mix. When stirring, it seems that the two mix but after stopping, the oil floats back to the top. After introducing soap, it is noticed that both oil and water seem to incorporate into each other. The basic structure of soap allows for the soap to attract water molecules through its hydrophilic head and at the same time to attract oil through it hydrophobic but lipopholic tail (Big brain science, 2012). This in return allows soap to work by breaking down any molecule resistance from water and oil and allowing the two to mix up.
Observations from the last experiment, the aluminum boat floats but is stationery before adding soap. After adding soap the boat moves showing that there is a disruption in the water in the arrangement of the water molecules. The water molecules near the detergent are attracted to the detergent as well as to other water molecules, so the surface tension of the water behind the boat decreases. This mechanism as explained by Planet Science (2011) happens after the introduction of soap because of how soap causes water tensions to reaction. Originally, water tension will either be high or low and when soap is introduced, low surface tension forces water molecules towards high surface tension thus moving the boat (Planet Science, 2011).
References
Big brain Sc...