Chen Xu has long had the idea of making soap, but the production process of soap has involved a relatively profound chemical reaction principle, but it is not a pure physical distillation of refining essential oils and alcohol, and it is even more complicated than simply making simple compound reactions such as sulfate hydrochloric acid.

The lab was quiet, and a group of alchemists in white coats were busy in front of a test bench full of bottles and jars and glassware.

Alcohol lamps, test tubes, flasks, beakers, glass rods, test tube racks, complex stills, and all kinds of new experimental equipment with rotating and reinforcing screws, if it weren't for the fact that these monks all wore a bun and beards, Chen Xu would have even suspected that this was a chemical laboratory in later generations.

"Master Hou~" Seeing Chen Xu coming in, a group of monks were alarmed, and they all quickly stopped their movements and saluted.

"No courtesy, Steward Cao is here!" Chen Xu waved his hand to say hello.

"Master Hou, what do you command?" A thirty-year-old alchemist with dark and thick hair hurriedly ran over.

"Steward Cao, now that spring has begun, and in a few months it will be the time when all kinds of flowers and plants are flourishing, you prepare, tomorrow you will go to the essential oil refining workshop of Jingyang Huayu Palace to select some alchemists and helpers to go to the south to buy flowers and herbs to refine essential oils, the equipment and equipment have already been prepared, and they are still in the experimental factory, you go directly to the factory supervisor to arrange, as for the place to go, it has been decided, and arrange in detail that you go to Qinghe Shopping Mall to find Fan Erniang, everything is arranged by her!"

"Yes, Master Hou, my subordinates will do it!" Steward Cao bowed and hurriedly left.

"Master Hou, you can just let someone give you an order for a small matter, why bother you to come to the laboratory in person!" An old Taoist priest with gray bones and gray bones in the fairy wind said with a smile on his face.

"Ben Hou is here for something else, what new things have you been researching lately?" Chen Xu asked with a smile.

"Uh~" The old Taoist priest looked embarrassed instantly, and his old face was a little red: "In recent months, I haven't found much except for collecting and preparing the lye that Hou Ye needs......"

"Well, it doesn't matter if you don't find it, how much lye comes out, Ben Hou wants to use it today, go get some, prepare the flask and the stove, by the way, go get a pound of grease and come over......"

Under Chen Xu's orders, a group of alchemists scattered to prepare what Chen Xu wanted, and soon the lye beakers, stoves, iron racks, etc. were all ready, and a young alchemist also went to the kitchen of the engineering college to bring a jar of pale yellow butter.

"Master Hou, the grease is here, do you plan to make shabu-shabu in the laboratory today?" The young alchemist's face was slightly excited, holding the butter jar and asking.

Chen Xu kicked the young Fangshi's ass with tears and laughter, "Could it be that you have forgotten the rules and regulations of the laboratory, and all experimental items are not allowed to be entered!" ”

"Hehe, of course I remember, but butter doesn't count, it's from the kitchen, what do you want butter to do, this thing can only be cooked......" The young alchemist craned his neck and sneered.

"Today, Ben Hou came to experiment with a saponification reaction, if successful, he could make soap, which can be used for bathing and laundry to remove dirt......"

A group of Fang Shi all looked at each other, and the director of the Immortal Wind Dao Bone even twitched slightly and said, "Master Hou, you said that chemistry is an esoteric science, and the future application prospects are huge, but what you are researching is either perfume or bathing and laundry, this is ...... That doesn't seem to be very useful, does it? ”

"Yes, yes, Master Hou, we don't have any face when we go out now, perfume is good, but it is all used by women, and it can't be put on the table, and it's far less respectable than refining medicine!" A group of alchemists nodded in agreement.

"You know a fart, you haven't even touched the profundity of chemistry at the moment, and you start to talk about uselessness, there is no useless knowledge in the world, only stupid and short-sighted ideas, the magic of chemistry is not what you see now, it's just that you have too little contact with it, and the progress is too slow, so that many of Benhou's ideas can't succeed......"

As Chen Xu spoke, he put some butter and lye into the flask and put them on the iron frame, and instructed a priest to open the coal stove and stir gently while heating.

The saponification reaction is learned in high school chemistry, that is, the animal oil or vegetable oil is put into the utensils and mixed with the strong alkali for hydrolysis, the strong alkali is generally potassium hydroxide or sodium hydroxide, according to the degree of saponification reaction, the products obtained are slightly different, but it will not affect the results, because this process is actually a very simple heating reaction, and the difference between distilled essential oil is not big, the only thing is to continue to sum up experience through experiments, to see how much oil and how much lye to put in the end to get the best saponification effect, so as to consume the least and the maximum output value.

At present, Chen Xu is unable to calculate the molecular formula of the saponification reaction, because the chemical reaction components of organic and inorganic substances are not fixed, just like petroleum refining gasoline and diesel, only by controlling the reaction temperature and the number of catalysts to define an approximate comprehensive value, it is impossible to obtain a single organic compound.

And Chen Xu's purpose today is to let this group of monks see what saponification reaction is.

The process of saponification reaction is very slow, and continuous stirring can speed up the reaction, so a group of people and scholars gathered around Chen Xu to watch intently, and after more than ten minutes, with the increase in temperature and continuous stirring, the yellow butter melted and mixed with lye, exuding a strange smell.

"Turn down the fire, and go open the windows!" Chen Xu felt that he couldn't open his eyes because of this smell, it was too pungent.

Soon half an hour passed, and the stirring alchemist changed to two, and by this time the lye and butter in the flask had slowly begun to fuse, but most of them were still viscous mixtures of grease.

"Master Hou, it seems that this saponification reaction is very slow, and it is as time-consuming as refining floral essential oil!" A alchemist spoke.

"Well, the temperature of the saponification reaction should not be too high, otherwise the grease will be burnt, and the smell of Fang Cai is caused by the temperature being too high.

The smell of the laboratory was unpleasant, and Chen Xu was too lazy to stay in the laboratory, so he went out to walk around the School of Engineering with his hands behind his back, inspected the students' classes outside the classrooms, and experienced the majesty of the teaching director.

So Chen Xu walked all the way, many students and professors and assistants of the School of Engineering hurriedly bowed respectfully after seeing it, watching Chen Xu go around in the college and refused to leave, and the school officials who didn't know why hurriedly ran to the Chengnan construction site to call the vice president Hu Kuan back.

After waiting for half an hour, Hu Kuan came to the college in a hurry with sweating profusely, and learned that Chen Xu was just bored and wandering around, and suddenly couldn't cry or laugh, but Chen Xu, as the dean of the College of Engineering, finally came to inspect it, Hu Kuan was still very happy, so that the college canteen prepared a few exquisite dishes, and personally went to get two glasses of golden-red tiger whip wolfberry wine, and the two chatted while eating in the private room of the canteen.

"Hiccup~" Chen Xu burped a big wine, and walked into the laboratory with a warm and comfortable body, and saw a group of alchemists sitting or squatting around the fire to keep warm, and a young alchemist was still slowly stirring the flasks on the shelf.

"Master Hou, can you see if this saponification reaction has been completed?" Seeing Chen Xu coming, a group of heat quickly dispersed and gathered around again.

Chen Xu took a closer look at the inside of the flask, which had roughly turned into a creamy paste at this time, but he could still see the structure of three layers of separation, the top layer of pale yellow emulsified substance was obviously not butter anymore, the middle was a thin layer of colorless transparent liquid, and the lower layer was cloudy, which should be the residual liquid left after the reaction between alkaline water and fat.

Although Chen Xu can't remember the time required for the saponification reaction and the state after the reaction is completed, it has been at least four hours since the end of the saponification reaction to the engineering college, and the preparation work has been added on the way, and the heating has been at least four hours now, and the state and time are almost completed.

"Okay, okay, take off the flask and cool it for a while, find a piece of gauze to separate the paste on top and put it in the beaker!"

Under Chen Xu's instructions, several alchemists quickly prepared the things they needed, and after the flask stood for ten minutes, it could be seen that the three layers of substances inside were separated more clearly, under Chen Xu's command, the two alchemists carefully poured all the contents of the flask on the gauze, and after the oil and water were separated, only a pale yellow semi-solidified substance was left on the gauze.

"Get all this paste into this beaker, and when it's completely solidified, it should be soap!" Chen Xu dipped his hand in the paste, feeling that his fingers were sticky and slippery, similar to shampoo.

"Master Hou, is the rest useless? Subordinates take it and throw it away! When he was done, a priest took a beaker with filtered oil and water, ready to pour it out.

"Wait, there's something useful here!" Chen Xu hurriedly snatched the beaker back, picked up a dropper and sucked a little floating transparent liquid from it, originally wanted to lick it himself, but quickly gave up, turned his head and said to the Fang Cai's alchemist, "Stretch out your hand!" ”

"Yes, Master Hou!" Fang Shi didn't know why, but he was still very accustomed to spreading out his palm, Chen Xu dropped a drop in Fang Shi's palm and said with a smile: "Lick it, tell Ben Hou what it tastes like?" ”

Fang Shi's mouth opened wide and he was stunned for a moment and said, "Master Hou, the laboratory stipulates that you can't taste the experimental preparation!" ”

", you think Ben Hou doesn't know, you haven't tasted anything in the laboratory!" Chen Xu pursed his lips with black lines on his head, "But some things are poisonous and really can't be eaten, but this substance is not poisonous, and it is very sweet, it is really delicious!" ”

"Master Hou, this thing is made of alkaline water, maybe there is alkali in it, alkali eats and mouth is full of blisters......" said a Fang Shi next to him with his eyelids jumping.

"Don't worry, it's not alkali now, just lick it......"

Under Chen Xu's encouragement, this Fang Shi hesitated for a short time and then stretched out his tongue and licked it in the palm of his hand, and then his body shook and his eyes lit up and shouted: "Not bad, Master Hou, it's really sweet, it's slip~"

The big tongue of the tasting Fang Shi added a clean palm as soon as he rolled it, and he looked at the beaker with some unfinished eyes, as if he had the urge to take a few more big sips.