For at least 2,300 years, people have used soap. Soap and detergent are chemicals that, when dissolved in water, may remove dirt from surfaces such as human skin, fabrics, and other objects. Cleaning a contaminated surface appears to be a simple operation, but it is complex and may be improved with the help of detergent chemicals suppliers and manufacturers.

Soaps and detergents must have particular chemical structures to function as detergents (surface-active agents): their molecules must have a hydrophobic (water-insoluble) portion, such as a fatty acid, or a relatively long chain carbon group, such as fatty alcohols or alkylbenzene.

In nonionic synthetic detergents, the molecule must have a hydrophilic (water-soluble) group, such as COONa, or a sulfo group, such as OSO3Na or SO3Na (as in fatty alcohol sulphate or alkylbenzene sulfonate), or a long ethylene oxide chain.

This hydrophilic component makes the molecule water soluble. In general, the hydrophobic portion of the molecule connects to the solid or fibre and onto the soil, whereas the hydrophilic portion attaches to water.

Early soapmakers most likely employed ashes and animal fats. Simple wood or plant ashes containing potassium carbonate were spread in water before mixed with lard. This mixture was then heated, and ashes were added repeatedly as the water evaporated.

During this process, the neutral fat was slowly chemically split; the fatty acids could then react with the alkali carbonates of the plant ash to form soap (this reaction is known as saponification). Finally, in the late 1920s and early 1930s, molecules consisting of long-chain alcohols were sulfonated and sold as neutralised sodium salts with no other additions except sodium sulphate as an extender.

Fat and alkali are now the essential raw ingredients used in soap production. Other compounds, such as optical brighteners, water softeners, and abrasives, are frequently used to achieve certain properties. Soap is made using a variety of procedures, the majority of which include the use of heat. Continuous or batch processes are both possible.

The traditional boiling procedure is still commonly utilised by small and medium-sized businesses. Its goal is to manufacture tidy soap pure and free of glycerin. Neat soap is the raw material used to make bars, flakes, beads, and powders. The boiling process is carried out through a series of methods known as changes, which take place in the kettle.

Most synthetic detergents are consumed in the home as spray-dried powders. They are made from an aqueous slurry that comprises all of the builder components and is created continuously or in batches. Builders, made up of specific alkaline elements, are virtually always found in laundry soaps.

These materials have a stronger detergent activity. In addition, many current washing powders blend anionic and nonionic synthetic detergents with soap to provide optimal efficiency and controlled foam for home washing machines.