CBSE Class 10 Answered
What is soap? Why are soaps not suitable for washing clothes when water is hard?
Asked by Omkar | 02 Jan, 2018, 04:42: PM
Expert Answer
Soap:
- Soaps are cleansing agents capable of reacting with water and dislodging the unwanted particles from clothes or skin.
- The molecules of soap are sodium or potassium salts of long chain carboxylic acids.
- A soap molecule has a tadpole-shaped structure.
- At one end (long non-polar end) of soap, a molecule is a hydrocarbon chain which is insoluble in water but soluble in oil.
- At the other end (short polar end) of soap molecule, there is a carboxylate ion which is hydrophilic i.e. water soluble but insoluble in oil.
- Soap on mixing with water forms a concentrated solution and causes foaming.
- The long non-polar end of soap gravitates towards and surrounds the dirt and absorbs the dust in it.
- The short polar end with the carboxylate ion repels the water away from the dirt.
- A spherical aggregate of soap molecules is formed in the soap solution in water and is called a micelle.
- Thus, the soap molecule dissolves the dirt and our clothes get clean.
soaps are not suitable for washing clothes when water is hard:
Soaps, when used with hard water, does not lather or produce foam easily because of the formation of a curdy precipitate or scum.
This scum is created when soaps react with the calcium and magnesium ions present in hard water.
Answered by Ramandeep | 03 Jan, 2018, 09:52: AM
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