The properties of soap

Principle

In a parallel experiment a dilute potassium chloride solution could also be added to soap, to demonstrate that alkaline salts do not form lime soaps. The experiment is suitable for sharing the work in groups with exchange of the experimental results.

Learning objectives

• Soaps can dissolve unpolar substances and so detach them from materials.
• Soaps form alkaline aqueous solutions. They react with other salt solutions (with the exception of alkali salts) forming insoluble compounds, the so-called lime soaps (calcium soaps).

Benefits

• Easy teaching and efficient learning by using interactive experimentation PHYWE-Software
• Experiment is part of a complete solution set with experiments for the topic Organic Chemistry matched with international curriculum: all topics are covered