Beginning of Essay
Cleaning with soap and soapless detergents. Detergent comes from the Latin word detergere meaning to clean, it is defined as a cleansing agent. Therefore, water itself is a detergent. This essay looks at soap and soapless (or synthetic) de ....

Middle of Essay
.... + base(caustic soda) ---- salt of fatty acid(soap) + alcohol(glycerol). Caustic potash (potassium hydroxide) can be used instead of caustic soda (sodium hydroxide)but is more expensive. The base used to come from wood ash containing potassium carbonate which formed potash as this was not plentiful it made soap a luxury. The cheapest source of the ester is animal and vegetable fats and oils. H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H O H-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H O-Na+ This is an example of a soap molecule. The hydrocarbon end is non polar and hydrophilic (water hating) and the carboxylate end ....