What is the molecular formula of detergent?

Answer 1

Soaps are basically fatty acid salts, something like CH3(CH2)nCOO-Na+ where n is generally 10, 12, or 14 (11 or 13 would work also, but because of the way living organisms make fatty acids even numbers are much more common).

Answer 2

Soaps are basically fatty acid salts, something like CH3(CH2)nCOO-Na+ where n is generally 10, 12, or 14 (11 or 13 would work also, but because of the way living organisms make fatty acids even numbers are much more common).
Soap does not have a chemical formula. It is a mixture of various fatty acid salts, and different soaps have different compositions.

Answer 3

Soap is composed of different compounds, dyes, fragrances, etc. Because of this, there is no chemical formula for soap. There is a bit more.

Most soaps are sodium salts of long-chain carboxylic acids such as stearic acid, so the formula for this component is:

Na+ (C18H35O2)-

Answer 4

This is not a simple question to answer since typical soaps are a molecule made from various carboxylic acids known as "fatty acids" and often Sodium (Na) or Potassium (K). Each of these components when added together produce "soaps" with differing molecular weights. There are perhaps 100 different fatty acids so just using Na & K as the positive metalic ion in the soap molecule produces a possibility for 200 different molecular weights. Understanding this, a common fatty acid in soap could be oleic acid with a molecular weight of ~282 grams/mole, add a Na+ atom (~23 g/mole) yields a soap molecule with a molecular weight of ~304 g (since one Hydrogen atom is lost during the bonding of the Na+ atom). I read once that the average Na+ based soap has a molecular weight of 301 grams where as the average K+ (39 g/mole) based soap would be 317 grams... GCG

Answer 5

Soap is a salt of fatty acid so its formula could be varied depending on what fatty acid have been used to prepare a particular soap. Additionally, liquid soap could be a mixture of different chemical compounds and hence cannot have a fixed chemical formula.

Answer 6

A major component of soap is sodium stearate(C18H36O2Na), it consists of two parts: (fatty end) :CH3-(CH2)n - COONa: (water soluble end)

More info - see related link

Answer 7

Soap can be defines as a sodium salt of long chain of fatty acid. C17H35COONa is the Basic formula of soap .

Answer 8

There is no formula. There are different types of detergent with different compositions. Even then most, if not all detergents are mixtures, and mixtures do not have chemical formulas.

Answer 9

Soap is a mixture, not a compound and so does not have a formula. It normally consists of sodium stearate, sodium palmitate, perfumes and colouring matter.

Answer 10

Many types of soaps are prepared by industry.
Generally a soap is a salt (frequently the metal is sodium) of a fatty acid.