Home > Community > Can barium and aluminum hydroxide be used to make soap? If not, whats the reason?
Upvote

9

Downvote
+ Aluminium
+ Hydroxides
+ Sodium hydroxide
+ Chemistry
Posted by
Love Messages

Can barium and aluminum hydroxide be used to make soap? If not, whats the reason?

Danilo Renzi  Follow

No, for two different reasons. Aluminum hydroxide is not soluble in water and isn't basic, so it won't hydrolyze fat to give you the free fatty acid you need.

Barium hydroxide is soluble and basic enough to split the fatty acid off of fat, but the barium salt of fatty acids is insoluble in water — soap scum. Not to mention it's toxic, as others have mentioned..

More

Upvote

VOTE

Downvote
Carol Chandler Jones  Follow

Well hypothetically yes but the soap will have adverse effects on your body.

Check: Cesium toxicity

More

Upvote

VOTE

Downvote
Dog daycare/dog experts/cat experts  Follow

First and Foremost — LEARN HOW TO MAKE SOAP. You quite apparently have no idea as to procedure or you would realize that there are pages on Google called soap calc’s that will tell you exactly. Amount of NaOH is dependant on the kind and amount of oils used. Same goes for KOH if you are making liquid soap.

More

Upvote

VOTE

Downvote
David A Kelly  Follow

Barium hydroxide Ba(OH)2, and soluble barium compounds in general, are toxic. Do you really want toxic soap?

Aluminum hydroxide Al(OH)3 is just about insoluble in water. The solubility improves when you add an alkali metal hydroxide such as NaOH, but if you had that, you wouldn’t need to use Al(OH)3.

More

Upvote

VOTE

Downvote
Daniel Shai  Follow

No.

aluminum hydroxide is a salt compound made of aluminum and hydroxide ions. Aluminum is an element, aluminum hydroxide is a compound of three different elements.

More

Upvote

VOTE

Downvote
David MacManus  Follow

Barium hydroxide on heating gives barium oxide and H2O vapours evolve at around 800 degree Celsius

More

Upvote

VOTE

Downvote
Ben Boyarko  Follow

Barium hydroxide Ba(OH)2 and aluminum hydroxide (Al(OH)3 cannot be used as soap because of the following reasons:

Ba(OH)2 is poisonous in nature. Barium ions are toxic to muscles especially in heart muscles and cause paralysis, can also affect the central nervous system

Al (OH)3 is used as antacid to relieve acid stomach and heartburn.

But it was documented that it can cause seizures , osteomalacia, and encephalopathy.

More

Upvote

VOTE

Downvote
CT Berchem  Follow

Barium hydroxide is used in analytical chemistry for the titration of weak acids, particularly organic acids. Its clear aqueous solution is guaranteed to be free of carbonate, unlike those of sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide, as barium carbonate is insoluble in water.

More

Upvote

VOTE

Downvote
Don Berry  Follow

The amount of potassium hydroxide needed would have to be adjusted. I noticed a while back the calculator at SoapCalc Home has both KOH and 90% KOH listed as options. You would only be 3% off using the 90% setting and I suspect the difference could be made up by adjusting the superfat setting really low.

More

Upvote

VOTE

Downvote
Castle Richard  Follow

Aluminium hydroxide is an ingredient of antacid which neutralizes the hydrochloric acid formed in the stomach. Aluminum hydroxide is used to treat heartburn, upset stomach, sour stomach, or acid indigestion. Aluminum hydroxide is also used to reduce phosphate levels in people with certain kidney conditions.

More

Upvote

VOTE

Downvote