Descriptive Essay On Perfect Soap

ENGLCOM WC

John Aldrick F. Calado February 26, 2016

A52B Process Descriptive

Wash your sorrows away with the perfect soap!

Are you tired of the same, old soap that wrinkles and dries your body? If yes, then the perfect soap is for you. What is even better is that even a high school student can make one. Let us first define what a perfect soap is. The perfect soap is a chemical compound that creates the best feel and lathering capacity. Feel is how smooth and milky the soap is to your skin. Lathering capacity is how creamy or bubbly the foam formed from the soap and water mixing together. The ideal feel should not be oily and grainy; while the ideal lathering capacity should be both creamy and bubbly but does not make your hands

For the materials, you need: a watch glass, 250-mL beaker, porcelain spatula, scientific balance, stirring rod, graduated cylinders, thermometer, a hot plate, and mold in any preferred shape. For the chemicals, you need: coconut or vegetable oil, 32.5% sodium hydroxide or lye, stearic acid, and kerosene. Do note that since the materials required are mostly glassware, they can lead to accidents most especially if you poorly mishandle them. Similarly, some chemicals can cause skin and respiratory problems due to their nature, may it be acidic, basic, or corrosive. There are a couple of situations where these might occur, namely: the beaker might suddenly shatter while heating it due to ignorance; your skin might have alkali burns due to contact with sodium hydroxide. For these reasons, you must not touch these chemicals with your bare hands, as well as smell them directly. Also, you must always be constantly vigilant of the situation. In addition to that, when heating, you must use the lowest setting of the hotplate, and turn it off immediately after

First, weigh 17.50 grams of coconut or vegetable oil in a 250-mL beaker. You may use the graduated cylinder for this because 1 gram is equal to 1 milliliter. Second, using the scientific balance, weigh 0.125 grams of stearic acid in a small watch glass. Then add the stearic acid into the oil in the beaker. Third, heat the oil until the stearic acid dissolves altogether. Fourth, cool the oil and stearic acid mixture to 40-45 °C. You can determine the temperature with the use of the thermometer. While waiting for the mixture to cool, you may wash your graduated cylinder. Fifth, add 32.0 mL of 32.5% sodium hydroxide (NaOH) or lye solution to the above mixture using a graduated cylinder. Maintain the temperature at 40°C and continue on stirring until the saponification process is complete. Lastly, pour the solution into a mold and allow it to harden overnight. During this process, problems may unexpectedly arise. If you accidentally spilled any chemicals such as the stearic acid, use a tissue to gather them and immediately dispose afterwards. If a clear layer of liquid appears at the bottom of the beaker even after a prolonged period of stirring, add a very small quantity of stearic acid and continue on stirring and heating the mixture. There are also additional options available, such as pouring about 0.5 mL of any body-safe, essential oil or perfume. You may also try to use other acids