Discover the Magic of Soap Making: Experiment with Different Solutions at Home

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Creating homemade soap solutions for dishwashing, carpet cleaning, and car cleaning involves understanding the basic chemistry of soap, primarily through a process called saponification, which combines oils and a base, typically lye (sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide). While simple soap recipes can be found online, effective cleaning solutions, especially for carpets, require more complex formulations. Most commercial cleaning products do not rely solely on the basic soap recipe of base, oil, and water; instead, they often utilize synthetic detergents like alkyl or aryl sulfonates and polyethoxylated compounds. For those looking to delve deeper into soap and detergent formulation, resources such as McCutcheon's "Functional Materials" and "Emulsifiers and Detergents" can provide valuable insights and guidance. Safety is crucial when working with lye, as it is a caustic substance, and proper handling and heating techniques should be employed.
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I want to start a home project to creating different soap solutions. Dish washing detergent, carpet cleaning solution, and car cleaning soap are my main focuses. I have no idea where to start as my internet research is getting no where.

What is soap made of and how can I experiment with different solutions?
What kind of tools will be needed?
 
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The process is called saponification, using oil and base ( lye ). Lye can be either sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide depending on the recipee and type of soap desired.

It is not as simple as it looks to make a suitable soap, since you are dealing with a caustic substance ( lye ). Depending upon your process you may be heating the oil of fat so do that in a safe way.

Some people make this into a hobby soap making business.
 
I have completed a little research and it seems that soap is made from a base+oil+water. Creating a carpet cleaner is more of creating a shampoo. Base (lye) and and a oil seems to be the way you create hand soaps or dish washing soaps. Which is very useful, figuring out the chemical compounds in a carpet cleaning solution seem to be allot more complex. I really want to start creating many of these types of chemicals but cannot find a starting point.
 
When carpet cleaning companies create solutions does it all derive from the basic recipe of base+oil+water=soap?
 
Klutch1 said:
When carpet cleaning companies create solutions does it all derive from the basic recipe of base+oil+water=soap?

Almost never. Simple soaps based on fats and oils are rarely used for the purposes you are interested in. Most detergents are alkyl or aryl sulfonates or are polyethoxylated phenols or alcohols.

A good place to start looking is McCutcheon's" Functional Materials" and "Emulsifiers and Detergents".
http://shop.gomc.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=TMC&Category_Code=mccutch
 

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