What are the common uses for lye?
Lye is a chemical used for making soap, performing chemistry demonstrations, making biodiesel, curing food, unclogging drains, disinfecting floors and toilets, and synthesizing drugs. Because it can be used to make illegal drugs, lye may be hard to find in a store.
What is the purpose of using lye in soap making?
If the soap is made properly, the lye is used up in the saponification process to turn oil into soap. There is no lye present in the finished bars of soap or shampoo. While all real soap must be made with lye, no lye remains in our finished product after saponification (described below).
Why is lye dangerous?
Lye is an alkali chemical- sodium hydroxide, also known as caustic soda. Lye can burn the skin and damage the eyes in the dry or wet form. It also releases fumes, when mixed with water, that can harm the lungs. If swallowed, lye will burn the esophagus and can cause death.
What is lye used for cooking?
Uses. Lye water is an ingredient used in Asian and African cooking for cooking meat, rice or noodles and vegetables like corn, beans, maize or okra to soften or add flavour or keep vegetables colour.
Where does lye come from naturally?
A lye is a metal hydroxide traditionally obtained by leaching wood ashes, or a strong alkali which is highly soluble in water producing caustic basic solutions. “Lye” most commonly refers to sodium hydroxide (NaOH), but historically has been used for potassium hydroxide (KOH).
Why do they put lime on dead bodies?
Quicklime is calcium oxide. When it contacts water, as it often does in burial sites, it reacts with the water to make calcium hydroxide, also known as slaked lime. This corrosive material may damage the corpse, but the heat produced from this activity will kill many of the putrefying bacteria and dehydrate the body.
What does lime do to a dead body?
The actual effects of lime on the decomposition of human remains were studied by Schotsmans et al. (2012; 2014a;2014b) based on field and laboratory experiments. The results showed that lime retards the rate of decomposition if present in a burial environment, but does not stop it. …
