Illustrated Glossary of Organic Chemistry
Soap:
A
fatty acid
salt
. In general use the term has come to mean any cleaning product.
Sodium
stearate
(the sodium
salt
of
stearic acid
; the
reaction product
shown in blue) can be formed by
saponification
of
glycerol
tristearate
with
aqueous
sodium
hydroxide
. The other
product
of this reaction is
glycerol
(the
reaction product
shown in red).
Related terms:
Detergent
,
surfactant
,
carboxylate
,
micelle
,
phospholipid bilayer
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