These salts of long-chain carboxylic acids are soaps and this saponification reaction is the way most soaps are manufactured Soaps are almost completely miscible with water. Soaps micelles in water are usually spherical clusters of carboxylate ions that are dispersed throughout the aqueous phase with their negatively charged carboxylate groups at the surface and with their nonpolar hydrocarbon chains on the interior Thus soap solution are able to separate the dirt particles because their hydrocarbon chains can"dissolve in the oil layer Synthetic detergents function in the same way as soaps; they have long nonpolar alkane chains with polar groups at the endThese salts of long-chain carboxylic acids are soaps and this saponification reaction is the way most soaps are manufactured. Soaps are almost completely miscible with water. Soaps micelles in water are usually spherical clusters of carboxylate ions that are dispersed throughout the aqueous phase with their negatively charged carboxylate groups at the surface and with their nonpolar hydrocarbon chains on the interior. Thus soap solution are able to separate the dirt particles because their hydrocarbon chains can “dissolve” in the oil layer. Synthetic detergents function in the same way as soaps; they have long nonpolar alkane chains with polar groups at the end