Making soap is serious business.
Chemistry has an allure because sometimes, it can be very dangerous. Explosions can happen. Fires can happen. Burns, in both of those cases, can happen.
Making soap = chemistry. No two ways about it. The use of lye instantly turns your kitchen into a chem lab.
I've learned that lye is some serious shit. From Wikipedia:
"Hazardous Reactions
Solid sodium hydroxide or solutions containing high concentrations of sodium hydroxide may cause chemical burns, permanent injury or scarring, and blindness. Lye (sodium hydroxide) may be harmful or fatal if swallowed.
Solvation of sodium hydroxide is highly exothermic, and the resulting heat may cause heat burns or ignite flammables.
Avoid all contact with organic tissue (including human skin, eyes, mouth, and animals or pets). Keep away from clothing. Avoid all contact with aluminium.
The combination of aluminium and sodium hydroxide results in a large production of hydrogen gas: 2Al(s) + 6NaOH(aq) → 3H2(g) + 2Na3AlO3(aq). Hydrogen gas is explosive; mixing lye (sodium hydroxide) and aluminium in a closed container is therefore dangerous. In addition to aluminium, lye (sodium hydroxide) may also react with magnesium, zinc (galvanized), tin, chromium, brass, and bronze to produce hydrogen gas and is therefore dangerous. Do not allow lye to contact these metals.
Lye may react with various sugars to generate carbon monoxide, which is a poisonous gas; mixing sodium hydroxide and sugar in a closed container is therefore dangerous. Do not allow lye to contact sugar."
Yeah, and this stuff is quite literally the magical ingredient that makes soap, soap. If you've ever used bar soap, you have rubbed the result of a dangerous chemical reaction all over your body. Of course, by the time soap cures the pH has come down to a safe level (from about pH 14 to pH 9), but still.
For those of you that may want to know what chemical reaction actually takes place during saponification, I found this webpage, which seems to explain it pretty well. (It's written by a chemist.)
Making soap = chemistry. No two ways about it. The use of lye instantly turns your kitchen into a chem lab.
I've learned that lye is some serious shit. From Wikipedia:
"Hazardous Reactions
Solid sodium hydroxide or solutions containing high concentrations of sodium hydroxide may cause chemical burns, permanent injury or scarring, and blindness. Lye (sodium hydroxide) may be harmful or fatal if swallowed.
Solvation of sodium hydroxide is highly exothermic, and the resulting heat may cause heat burns or ignite flammables.
Avoid all contact with organic tissue (including human skin, eyes, mouth, and animals or pets). Keep away from clothing. Avoid all contact with aluminium.
The combination of aluminium and sodium hydroxide results in a large production of hydrogen gas: 2Al(s) + 6NaOH(aq) → 3H2(g) + 2Na3AlO3(aq). Hydrogen gas is explosive; mixing lye (sodium hydroxide) and aluminium in a closed container is therefore dangerous. In addition to aluminium, lye (sodium hydroxide) may also react with magnesium, zinc (galvanized), tin, chromium, brass, and bronze to produce hydrogen gas and is therefore dangerous. Do not allow lye to contact these metals.
Lye may react with various sugars to generate carbon monoxide, which is a poisonous gas; mixing sodium hydroxide and sugar in a closed container is therefore dangerous. Do not allow lye to contact sugar."
Yeah, and this stuff is quite literally the magical ingredient that makes soap, soap. If you've ever used bar soap, you have rubbed the result of a dangerous chemical reaction all over your body. Of course, by the time soap cures the pH has come down to a safe level (from about pH 14 to pH 9), but still.
For those of you that may want to know what chemical reaction actually takes place during saponification, I found this webpage, which seems to explain it pretty well. (It's written by a chemist.)