soaps
Soaps and Detergents Pioneers made soap by boiling fats with a strongly basic solution made by leaching potassium carbonate, K2CO3, from wood ashes with hot water. Animal fats contain polyesters of fatty acids long-chain carboxylic acids . When animal fats are treated with a base like potassium carbonate or sodium hydroxide, glycerol and salts of fatty acids such as palmitic, oleic, and stearic acid are formed. The salts of fatty acids are called soaps. The sodium salt of stearic acid, sodium stearate, has the formula C17H35CO2Na and contains an uncharged nonpolar hydrocarbon chain, the C17H35 unit, and an ionic carboxylate group, the CO 2 unit Figure 11.32 .