Does soap solution conduct electricity?

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Every child learns early on that they should leave the water in a thunderstorm, because water transmits the electrical current of lightning. But what about the conductivity of the water when you add soap? Does this change within the soap solution? When answering the question, you have to look at the reaction of both substances and the resulting products.

Soap increases the conductivity of water.
Soap increases the conductivity of water.

When electrical current is conducted

  • In order to be able to conduct electricity, substances must have conductivity. This conductivity depends on the existence and number of charge carriers within the substances.
  • Charge carriers can appear in different forms. For example, they can be present as loosely bound electrons or in the form of ions. The electrical current is passed on through these ions.

Soap reacts with water

If you put shavings of soap in a vessel with water, you can see that the two substances react with one another.

  • Soap reacts alkaline with water, protolysis takes place.
  • During this protolysis, in turn, an ion exchange takes place. A hydrogen particle is drawn off the water from the negatively charged carbon chain ends.
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  • The chemical formula for this is: COO- + H2O -> COOH + OH-. So the soap solution has one more negatively charged ion (OH-).

Soap solution as a reinforcing conductor of electrical current

  • The OH ions produced during protolysis are also known as hydroxide ions. These additional hydroxide ions reinforce the already existing effect in the water of conducting electrical current.
  • The water itself already contains minerals that are both positively and negatively charged, which is why water itself already conducts electricity. As a result, a soap solution must also conduct electricity, and even increase the effect.

You can even measure this effect. Tap water has a voltage of 8 V and a current of 7 mA. In a soap solution, the current increases to 8 mA while the voltage remains the same.

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