How does detergent interact with water and non-polar substances to remove them from dishes?
Likes dissolve likes. That’s not the case with our greasy pans and water. You see, water is polar and oil/grease is non-polar. Oil/grease is known to be hydrophobic (water-fearing) due to the fact that fats can’t form hydrogen bonds with water. Surfactants, on the other hand, like detergents and soap are both hydrophilic (water-loving) and hydrophobic. So the tail of surfactants is hydrophobic whereas the head of surfactants is hydrophilic (meaning it can form hydrogen bonds with water molecules). This is how soaps/detergents dissolve oily stuffs: Soaps can cover the sufrace of a hydrophobic molecule with its tail and produce a new hydrophilic surface of its head.
