Surf Wiki
Save to docs
general/water-treatment

From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

Soap scum

White solid resulting from addition of soap to hard water

White solid resulting from addition of soap to hard water

Soap scum or lime soap is the white solid composed of calcium stearate, magnesium stearate, and similar alkaline earth metal derivatives of fatty acids. These materials result from the addition of soap and other anionic surfactants to hard water. Hard water contains calcium and magnesium ions, which react with the surfactant anion to give these metallic or lime soaps. : In this reaction, the sodium cation in soap is replaced by calcium to form calcium stearate.

Lime soaps build deposits on fibres, washing machines, and sinks. Synthetic surfactants are less susceptible to the effects of hard water. Most detergents contain builders that prevent the formation of lime soaps.

References

References

  1. Angelo Nora, Alfred Szczepanek, Gunther Koenen. (2005). "Metallic Soaps".
Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

water-treatment soaps calcium-compounds magnesium-compounds
Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about Soap scum — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report