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Can someone please explain to me how soaps work? (Edexcel)

Thanks

Original post by Terminatoring

Thanks

Have you looked it up?

What don't you understand?

here's a little interactive guide to soap ... it may help.

Reply 2

Thomith

basically, when soap mixes with water it becomes a soap anion. The soap anions have a hydrophobic hydrocarbon tail, which is attracted to the grease, and a hydrophillic head which (to my understanding) dissolves in water. Soap anions surround the grease stain on the fabric and as the hydrophillic head dissolves in water, the grease is lifted off the fabric, causing the grease to dissolve in the water, removing the stain.

Hope i helped a little (again this is just from my personal understanding, i have the Edexcel C3 exam tommurrow and this is a part of it, so hopefully my answer was pretty good.)

I assume you weren't, but if you were asking about how soap reacts with hard water as part of how it works, basically the soap reacts with the Mg and Ca ions in the water, causing a precipitate (called scum) to form in the water, meaning more soap is used to form a lather. (if you dont need this just look at the first paragraph for your answer)