What is the scientific technical difference between a soap, a shampoo, and a detergent?

Answer 1

Detergent is a compound, or a mixture of compounds, intended to assist cleaning. Any thing then that is used for cleaning, can be called detergent. For example, if plain water is used for cleaning, it is a detergent - technically.

Hence, soap and shampoo are under the term detergents since they are used for washing and cleaning. Specifically, they both contain surfactants that clean by stripping oil and dirt from our skin, clothing, and/or hair. The difference between the two, however, is that surfactants in shampoo are milder than the one in soap. Soap bonds to oils with such affinity that it removes too much if used on hair. Shampoo uses a different class of surfactants balanced to avoid removing too much oil from the hair.

Answer 2

Soaps and detergents are both wetting agents. You can't easily wash oily or greasy hands with pure water which is repelled by oil and grease which prevents the hands from becoming wet. Dirt particles must become wet to be rinsed away. That said, soap is formed specifically by the saponification of fats using metal alkalies. Detergents are other chemicals that break down fat globules and wet the object being cleaned so that it can be thoroughly rinsed. Even gasoline often contains a detergent package to keep an engine clean. Incidentally, soap mixed with oil forms grease. You must check the ingredients of shampoos to determine whether they contain soaps or detergents, etc. because it is a general name for a hair or carpet, etc. cleaning agent.

Answer 3

soaps are sodium salts of higher fatty acids while detergents are sulphonates. when we use soap in hard water it forms calcium and magnesium salts of the same fatty acids and therefore produce scum.thus soap does not give foam with hard water.

Answer 4

Its all in the technical spelling of each individual word!