Soap Making
Both sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide are used in soap making. Sodium hydroxide is often used to make solid soap while potassium hydroxide is used to make liquid soap. Soaps made of potassium hydroxide are softer and can more easily be dissolved in water than sodium hydroxide soaps.
When soap making, sodium hydroxide cannot be substituted with potassium hydroxide and vice versa because soap making recipes will have different quantity requirements for these two chemicals depending on the kind of soap being manufactured. In addition, the quantities required for soap saponification differ when using caustic soda and hydrated potash.
Read more about this topic: Lye
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