Soaps & Detergents - Ingredients

Soaps & detergents are cleansing products that may include bar soaps and liquid gels for cleaning the hands, face or body; detergent powders or cakes for laundry cleaning purposes; household cleansers for cleaning household items such as furniture, glass, plastic items, etc; and dish cleaning products for washing kitchen utensils and dishes. Surface active agents are the prime ingredients of soaps and detergents. Other than these surface active agents, all soaps and detergents are made using a variety of ingredients that are added in soap and detergent products to give them specific properties and characteristics.

Ingredients of Soaps and Detergents

Soaps are prepared by the alkaline hydrolysis of fats and oils or the saponification process. This soap manufacturing process also produces a by-product 'glycerol' which is useful in foods, as an antifreeze, as a tobacco-moistening agent, and in the manufacturing of nitroglycerine and dynamite. The ingredients of soaps and detergents and their percentage (percent of total by weight) used can be listed as follows

• Surfactants (30-70%)
• Plasticizers and binders (20-50%)
• Lather enhancers (0-5%)
• Fillers and binders (5-30%)
• Water (5-12%)
• Fragrance (0-3.0%)
• Opacifying agents (0-0.3%)
• Dyes and pigments (less than 1%)

Properties & Functions of Soaps Ingredients

All the detergent ingredients impart different properties and functions to soaps and detergents. There are certain other specific ingredients that are added in specialty soaps and detergents depending on the action or characteristics desired in the end product. For example, toilet soaps may contain antimicrobial agents to kill or inhibit bacteria which can cause odor or disease. Some other personal cleaning products may be made using abrasives for removing stubborn greasy dirt.

Glycerin is added as an ingredient of soap as an emollient and texture enhancer in personal cleaning products, especially moisturizing soaps or beauty soaps. Sorbitol is another emollient, which is used along with glycerin to help make glycerin soaps more transparent. For making an opaque toilet soap, titanium dioxide can be added to it.

Bleaches, detergent boosters, fillers and builders are laundry cleaning agents that are added to enhance the effectiveness of laundry detergents and soaps and provide special attributes and functions to these laundry cleaning products. The laundry cleaning agents brighten and whiten fabrics and help remove the stubborn stains. These laundry detergent ingredients also convert the soils into colorless, soluble particles which can be removed by detergents and are carried away in the wash water.

Know more about all types of ingredients of soaps and detergents:

• Fats
• Alkalies
• Glycerin
• Surfactants or Surface Active Agents
• Detergent Builders
• Detergent Boosters
• Detergent Fillers
• Rinse Agents
• Film Removers
• Lime & Rust Removers
• Emulsifiers
• Dry Cleaning Fluid
• Conditioning Agent
• Bleaches & Compounds
• Ammonia