Chemistry Student Doing a Soap making Lab for a big project. Need some help

[chemistrystudent100]

Hello. I'm making cold process soap throughout this entire week for my lab. I'll be using coconut oil for my fatty acids, and NaOH as my lye. What I'm studying, is how a differing temperature of coconut oil (25-55C) will affect the pH and yield of the soap. My purpose for coming to this forum, is to simply become aware of any tips, nuisances, abnormalities, issues, that may occur when I'm doing this. I'm asking for tips and things to watch out for so I can perform this lab with the greatest precision. Thanks a lot!

 

[DeeAnna]

"...how a differing temperature of coconut oil (25-55C) will affect the pH and yield of the soap..."

I doubt varying the temperature within this range will do much to affect pH and yield of the soap after saponification is complete.

There might be slight differences due to water evaporation if you don't maintain a closed environment. But the main reactants -- the fat and the alkali -- don't evaporate, so the weight of the end product -- the pure anhydrous soap -- shouldn't change much either.

What temperature will affect is the rate of reaction.

How are you going to determine yield? And how are you going to control for any water evaporation?

Do you have a specific pH testing protocol in mind? Measuring pH in a highly alkaline environment can be extremely inaccurate.

 

[Soaper2024]

DeeAnna is correct, the only real variable temperature will change is the speed of the reaction.

Can you change the project to measure the reaction time instead?

 

[Nakia]

This sounds like a great project! As others mentioned, temperature will mostly affect the reaction speed not the pH or yield. To minimize variables, control water evaporation by using a sealed setup. For pH testing, remember high alkalinity can impact accuracy, so choose a reliable method. Measuring reaction time might give you more noticeable results. Good luck!