Saponification Lab

Sarah Al Jalal

St. Joan of Arc Catholic Secondary School,

SCH4U1: Grade 12 University Level Chemistry

M Kasunic

December 16, 2024

Annotated Bibliography

Alum, B. N. (2024). Saponification Process and Soap Chemistry. Department of Research and

Publications, Kampala International University, 12(2), 50–56. https://doi.org/10.59298

This article was written by a researcher from the Kampala International

University. He is a student at the university and repeatedly publishes research papers for

them. The information provided matches all the other sources I have researched, and it is

published from an actual university, making it a trustworthy source.

This article discusses the process of saponification and the importance of an alkali

solution in the soap making process. It talks about the chemical reactions which make

fats into soap, with glycerol as a byproduct. It highlights the key points in saponification

which are: hydrolysis (forms glycerol and carboxylate ions), soap formation, the alkali

formation (KOH creates soft soaps, NaOH creates harder soaps), and soap creation

application. It emphasizes the importance of the alkali used in saponification and the

different types of soap that can form based on the fatty acid. It also discusses the different

factors that affect the quality of the soap produced, which includes things like

temperature, ingredients used, fragrances, and more. This helped in creating the

procedure for our soap recipe because it aided in our understanding of saponification and

factors that could affect it. It is part of the reason why we did not add any colouring or

scenting to our soap; so that it keeps its integrity.

Amnudin, N., Yussuf, M., Zain, S., & Majid, F. (2018). The Chemical And Physical

Characteristics Of Bar Soap (pp. 1–5). Universiti Teknologi Mara.

https://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/55040/1/55040.pdf

This lab report was the final project of a few chemistry students at the Universiti
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Teknologi Mara. Their supervisor is a scholar named Norkamruzita Binta Saadon who

herself has published many research papers for the university. It is the students’ final

project to attain their diploma in chemical engineering, meaning they have studied these

chemicals intensively, making them a reliable source of information.

This report discusses the chemical and physical properties of soap. The report

broadly looks over the different types of soap that exist. More importantly, it talks about

the hot and cold saponification processes and the different characteristics that the soap

acquires based on what process is used. This article also stresses the importance of

having a safe pH level for soap, as it could irritate the skin if not. We used this

information to create our soap procedure, following the cold process.

Arasaretnam, S., & Venujah, K. (2019). Preparation of Soaps by Using Different Oil and

Analyze Their Properties. Natural Products Chemistry & Research, 7(1), 1–4.

https://doi.org/10.4172/2329-6836.1000257

This research article comes from the Natural Products Chemistry & Research

facility. The two authors that wrote it work at the Department of Chemistry in Eastern

University located in Sri Lanka. Arasaretnam is a professor at the university and has a

PhD in Chemistry and Venujah has a bachelor in Chemistry, also lecturing at the same

institution as Arasaretnam. These two individuals are in charge of teaching the next

generation of chemists, meaning they are most likely a credible source of information.

This especially interesting report talks about different oils used to make soap and

the properties they end up with. The mixture of some of these oils creates a higher quality

product (if the correct oils are chosen). They create a procedure to make a variety of

soaps. They create their lye solution by dissolving NaOH in water, letting it cool to room
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temperature and then adding the oil (either coconut, olive, palm, castor, or gee) into the

solution until it forms a trace. After that, they put the soap through rigorous testing,

checking the moisture content, total fatty matter, pH level, and the alkali content in the

soaps. Based on the results, the olive oil was the best choice to make soap. Coconut oil

was cheap and produced the hardest soap, but is ultimately not the best choice for your

skin. This was good for our procedure because it provided ideas on how to test our soap

as well as the different oils we could use. We added olive oil to our procedure for a better

quality soap as a whole, but also used coconut oil because it would create the hard

textured soap that we desired.

Burleson, G., Butcher, B., Goodwin, B., Sharp, K., & Ruder, B. (2017). Soap-Making Process

Improvement: Including Social, Cultural and Resource Constraints in the Engineering

Design Process. International Journal for Service Learning in Engineering,

Humanitarian Engineering and Social Entrepreneurship, 12(2), 81–102.

https://doi.org/10.24908/ijsle.v12i2.7572

This report was written by several authors, each with plenty of experience and

qualifications. Brian Butcher works for the Norwegian University of Science and

Technology, Grace Burleson is a pre-candidate for a PhD at the University of Michigan

with a duel masters in science of mechanical engineering and applied anthropology,

Kendra V. Sharp is a professor of Oregon State University for the school of mechanical,

industrial, and manufacturing engineering, with a PhD in applied mathematics from the

university of Illinois, and finally Brianna Goodwin works at the University of

Washington. This highly educated group of people published this report in the
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International Journal for Service Learning, a credible journal with a plethora of articles

for one's disposal.

This report is about the trials and tribulations students had to face to create an

effective soap-making process for the organization TERREWODE. TERREWODE is a

non-governmental organization based in Uganda which provides jobs for survivors of

obstetric fistula. The engineers created both a hot and cold process to make soap using

liquid fat, solid fat, lye, goats milk, and fragrances/colours. They faced many obstacles

trying to create a proper environment for the workers. After they created their first batch

of soap, they fixed their procedures to make it more efficient. They identified their

mistakes and fixed them for the next batch of soap. This report helped us understand the

different things that could go wrong during an experiment and analyze our procedure.

Idoko, O., Emmanuel, S., Salau, A., & Obigwa, P. A. (2018). Quality Assessment on Some

Soaps Sold in Nigeria. Nigerian Journal of Technology, 37(4), 1–4. NIJOTECH.

This article was published by the Nigerian Journal of Technology, which is highly

regarded as an engineering journal. People find a plethora of articles that have to do with

engineering (electrical, mechanical, chemical) for their research papers. These articles are

all published by experts in their respective fields, making them credible and reliable

sources.

This report is assessing the quality of the soaps in Nigeria. It discusses

saponification but focuses heavily on the testing they used to see if the soaps were

quality products and safe to use. They tested free caustic alkali, the matter insoluble in

alcohol, the pH of the soap, free fatty matter, moisture content, washing properties, foam

stability, and cleaning properties. The results all yielded good and safe soaps to use. This
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was especially helpful in figuring out ways to test if the soap we made was safe to use,

specifically the pH.