The results gathered from experimentation are very promising. The results show that the physical microencapsulation technique developed actually protected the eugenol from the sodium hydroxide. As a result, the rate of reaction was not increased and our hypothesis was supported by the data.
Although the data we gathered supports our hypothesis, more work can be completed to improve the quality of the microcapsules. More so, the microcapsules tended to clump together to form a huge ball of microcapsules. Instead of having a huge ball, a method needs to be developed to crush the ball of microcapsules into a fine powder. A great start would be the use of filtration to separate the chunks of microcapsules and the use of a pestle and mortar to finely grind the microcapsules.
All in all, the experimentation completed was a great success. More so, we were able to dive into a project that had never been researched before and develop a new technique that could truly change the face of cold process soap making.
All in all, the experimentation involving saponification values and residual total alkali was a success. In addition, it is very important for handcrafted soapmakers to know that they need to completed each of their experiments based on their own materials. As stated before, each box of oil has its own SAP value and as a result, each SAP value plays a vital role to not only seizing properties but to the entire soapmaking process. As for residual total alkali, again each soapmaker's soap will have an individual RTA number; it should be noted that an accepted bar of soap has an RTA value of less than 1.0 ppt. Although our results were not below 1.0 ppt for any of our soaps, we stand confident that our experimental procedure is acceptable for determining RTA values.