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) detergents. Both substances we use everyday and have a big market commercially, they effect everyone. Soaps are made from natural products and soapless detergents are produced chemically, each having advantages and disadvantages.
Soap has a much longer history than it's relatively new synthetic version. There is evidence of soap made in Mediterranean countries around 2500 years ago. The basic process has not changed much although now the chemistry is understood. Soap is made from the process called saponification, the alkaline hydrolysis of fats and oils. It is essentially the reverse of esterification.
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R-C-O-R' + NaOH ----......

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Title: Chemistry-Soaps And Detergents
Approximate Word Count: 974
Approximate Pages: 4 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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