Question

Soft soap is made with potassium, rather than sodium salts. If true enter $1$, if false enter $0$

Answer 1

Hint: To answer this question we should know what is hard and soft soap. The soft and hard nature of soap depends upon the alkaline solution. The alkaline solution of soft alkali metal gives the soft soap and the alkaline solution of hard alkali metal gives the hard soap.

Complete answer:
Soap is manufactured by fat, oils and alkaline solutions. The sodium and potassium salt of long fatty acid chains are known as soaps. The process of making soap is known as saponification. During saponification reaction, oil and fact react with a base to make soap and alcohol.

Potassium is a relatively softer metal than sodium. The sodium salt of long fatty acid chains is known as hard soap whereas the potassium salt of long fatty acid chains is known as soft soap. So, it is true that soft soap is made with potassium, rather than sodium salts.

Additional information: The essential material (chemicals) to prepare soap are, the salts of fatty acid are made up of the reaction of fat and oil with an alkaline solution in presence of heat.
We can use vegetable or cooking oil which is easily available. To make the alkaline solution some alkyl metal salts such as sodium chloride and sodium hydroxide can be used and to make the solution we can use distilled water.

The chlorides and hydroxide are used in saponification, so the nature of the reaction mixture can be tested by litmus paper. The nature of the reaction can be tested by using litmus paper. When a blue litmus paper is dipped in the reaction mixture it remains as such but when a red litmus paper is dipped in the reaction mixture it turns blue which indicates the reaction mixture is basic.

Hence the correct answer is “1” i.e, ‘True’.

Note: As soap is made by alkaline salt solution so, the mixture of saponification reaction is basic. The solution has free alkali ions, so the soap solutions are slippery. Soft soap is used in shampoo, body showers and shaving creams, etc. the hard soap is used for toilet purposes.