Soap: The Polymorphic Genie of Hierarchically Structured Soft Condensed-Matter Products

More than 5 million tonnes of metal salts of fatty acids are manufactured and used worldwide every year, to create a range of soft condensed-matter products such as bar soaps, stick deodorants, personal care creams, toothpastes, and lubricant greases. These molecules, popularly known as soaps, are capable of forming a plethora of states and self-assembled aggregates such as micelles, liquid crystals, solid crystals, and gels, whose characteristic sizes or domain sizes can span from nanometers to centimeters. The type and mix of the phases formed, their morphologies, and their states of dispersion or the nature of their further supra-assemblies dictate the underlying micromechanical structures of products, which, in turn, are responsible for their optical, structural, and rheological properties. Developing processing guidelines to manipulate characteristic micromechanical structures is therefore key to obtaining the desired look, touch, feel, and function of these products. The article discusses a few illu...