Soaps and Detergents

Many soaps and detergents are available in the market for bathing, washing and cleaning. They are made attractive by adding colors and smell.

Soaps are prepared by the chemical reaction of fat of sodium hydroxide with oils available in natural form. Natural oils are obtained from fats of oily organisms and seeds from plants. Some examples of oils are - palm oil and olive oil. Asters present in oils get decomposed by water with sodium hydroxide. We get acid present in aster with sodium salt and glycerol.

This we find that sodium salt of acids are soaps. 

When soaps are used in hard water then foam is not built. It happens because hard water has soluble calcium and magnesium salt, these react with soap to form non dissolve particles.

But this thing doesn't happen with detergents as they produce foams even in hard water because they do not form non dissolve particles with calcium and magnesium salt.

Many detergents are available in market now days. Some of them are biodegradable but not all. Bio degradable means decomposition can be done by micro organisms like bacteria and worms. Those non biodegradable particles flow in rivers and other water resources and pollute them. This water is harmful for both water plants and water animals.