-
Neutralization vs saponification?
How do you know if you are just neutralizing or if you’re creating a soap!??
For instance, if you are neutralizing koh and stearic acid or if you saponify them.
But how would your end product differ in a basic cream product? O-w emulsion.
-
3 Replies
-
Neutralizing is the general term. Saponifying is the term we use specifically when we neutralize a fatty acid.
A soap is simply the salt formed from neutralizing one or more fatty acids with a base, typically sodium or potassium hydroxide.Saponifying can also be used as a slightly more general term, where it incorporates the process of splitting a triglyceride into it’s component fatty acids + glycerin and then neutralizing those fatty acids.So, since saponifying and neutralizing are talking about the same chemical process, you can see that there will be no difference.It would probably help you to do some reading on the subject: -
Thank you for your response.
I thought I was creating a soap (salt of stearic acid with the koh) in this water based cream product I’m working on but my boss stating it wasn’t a saponification, it was a neutralization. So I’m a little confused as to why it’s one and not the other.Hopefully your link will help me understand the difference.
-
There is NO difference. Sounds like your boss needs that link too.
Log in to reply.