ELI5- What is “soap”? We have bar soap, dish soap, antibacterial soap like dial, hand soap, foaming hand soap and more I’m sure. What ties them together to all be called soap?
In: Chemistry
What’s common to all soaps is they are long molecules with one end that attracts water and another end that attracts oil.
So you put soap on something dirty and the soap particles stick to oil/fats/grease, then when you rinse with water the soap particles get pulled with the water and pull the oil/fats/grease off with it.
Cell membranes are also made of fat, and the soap molecules sticking to them break them. So really all soap is antibacterial to a degree.
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