Answer to Question #244299 in Physical Chemistry for reyn

Question

What is the polarity of soap and other surfactants?​

Answer 1

Soap molecules (also called surfactant (*) molecules) are said to be amphiphilic which means `loving both'. Their crucial characteristic is that they are made of two very different parts : a polar hydrophilic (*) (meaning `water loving') head and one or two long, hydrophobic (*) (meaning `water hating') tails.