Sciencemadness Discussion Board

How to Make Shampoo?

denatured - 23-9-2005 at 01:32

Hello

I looked this up in google but all the recipes i have found doesn't tell you how to make it from the start.

All i find is to add soap(some kind) and all your herbs and you are done... thats not what i want.

I want to make it from the beginning.

What is the difference between soap & shampoo? i have made soap once by boiling some oil and then poured some NaOH and i got some soap after a while of drying. is shampoo is done the same way?

And one last question why i find "Sodium Laurel Sulfate" in every shampoo?

Please excuse me for this kind of kitchen chemistry stuff!

Darkblade48 - 23-9-2005 at 04:05

I can't answer your question about how to make shampoo, but I do know that the sodium lauryl sulfate is a detergent that is used to give that lathering (foaming) effect

12AX7 - 23-9-2005 at 13:01

Soaps are salts of a cation and a long-chain organic acid (usually >12 units or so). In particular, "soap" itself is most often sodium stearate (dodecanoate IIRC?). The fatty end bonds to oils while the ionic end bonds to water, reducing surface tension between the otherwise immiscible materials and allowing it to be washed away.

Detergents are a small step away: they use fatty chains for the lipophilic property, but instead of an acid group and salt (i.e., COO+Na-), it uses an inorganic ester. Sodium laureth sulfate means one charge of the sulfate ion is neutralized by the sodium ion, while the other is connected to the long-chain alcohol molecule.

Ammonium is always mentioned as having good cleaning power (compared to say potassium? I don't know), so ammonium stearate or ammonium lauryl/laureth sulfate would perform better.

The term "soap" applies to any inorganic salt of an organic acid (hmm, that's probably a bad contradiction of terms, but you get my drift), including insolubles; calcium and magnesium stearate, formed by displacing the sodium ion with "hard water" calcium and magnesium ions, is also known as soap scum. Aluminum soaps have been used from grease to napalm as a thickening agent.

The term "detergent oil" means the oil has some detergent added, which though it does increase foaming (IIRC), it also retains moisture instead of letting it fall to the bottom. This is important in such things as car engines, where moisture would otherwise be a problem. (Combustion gasses including steam inevitably find their way from the cylinders to the crankcase, where it condenses and would cause trouble if not for the detergent.)

There's a whole slew of other sorts of emulsifying agents. IIRC, you can wash your hair with an egg, if worse comes to worse. Just rinse it good...

*Edit* OH, and making shampoo! I saw this in a book somewhere, but I don't remember it exactly. Basically it involves making the ester of sulfuric acid, lauryl/laureth alcohol and some sodium. It would probably be harder to start, but I bet you could cleave sodium lauryloxide (analogous to sodium ethoxide, etc.) with sulfuric acid. Mixing a stoichiometric amount ought to splice the sulfate in the middle, but it's probably not this simple as I bet the -ol reacts slowly and isn't very soluble.

Tim

[Edited on 9-23-2005 by 12AX7]

denatured - 24-9-2005 at 07:25

Thanks both of you for your replies

But...

If you could remember the name of the book i would appreciate it.
I thought that i would find somebody already tried to make shampoo/soap! anyway

Nicodem - 24-9-2005 at 10:16

Quote:
Originally posted by alnokta
I want to make it from the beginning.

Very interesting statement, but what exactly do you mean? Did you mean how to make shampoo from petroleum, water, salt and all the rest needed?
You know, in chemistry you beter avoid using the phrases like "from the beginning" as nowdays with all the chemical market providing all kinds of complex compounds it is an extremely vague phrase and can mean to order the needed materials from a chemicstry catalogue or something as radical as making it from petroleum, carbon and minerals.

denatured - 24-9-2005 at 11:30

No No my friend you got me wrong:) funny though

When i say from the beginning i mean that i want make a real thing not like the recipes i found which is about adding herbs and other constituents to ready-made products.

P.S. i wonder why almost all my questions have no answer:(

12AX7 - 24-9-2005 at 15:11

You mean like making soap from lye solution and natural fats or oils?

BTW, IIRC, natural wool is coated in lanoleic acid (and as I recall, that's what the name comes from). You could get that from somewhere (if you know a farmer who shears wool..), then chemically reduce it (with what?) to an alcohol, then esterify it to a detergent. Hrm, "lauryl" isn't "lanoleic", so they're not exactly the same...

Tim

P.S. Probably because, for some reason, people take a dim view of questions. The usual excuse is "read a book" or "UTFSE", but it doesn't help when you don't know what books are most appropriate and the search engine sucks at finding answers (especially to simple questions).

denatured - 28-9-2005 at 02:20

Exactly.

I always try to use search engines before starting threads/asking but as you said, such simple things is difficult to find.

denatured - 2-10-2005 at 06:36

I got this procedure from a friend of mine but there will be a problem because he gave me the "trade names" or "popular"

Anyway it is very simple to make there are two main components

1- Something called "Texabon" if you google it you will see that its name is "Sodium luryl ether sulphate( SLES )"

2- Something i couldn't find its name called "k.d."

Very basic way is to mix 8 Kgm Texabon with 3 kgm of k.d. and complete with 80 kgm/L water.

And you are finished... there are other few ingeridents like preservatives and colors and perfumes and citric acid.

If you know what the other chemical may be .... tell me about the reaction.