Synthetic detergents are becoming more and more necessities of people's daily life. At the same time, the development trend of modern washing determines the different requirements for decontamination, safety, environmental protection and individuality of washing products. This article expounds how to select different washing products in a targeted manner according to the difference of washing objects and washing purposes. And clarify some common misunderstandings about the selection and use of cleaning products by the public at present.
As early as thousands of years ago, human beings have known that plant ash water, acacia water and tea cake water can be used to wash clothes. At the end of the 18th century, with the development of the alkali industry, people invented the method of making soap from natural animal and vegetable oils. During the First World War, due to the lack of oil resources for producing soap, Germany began to use petroleum products as raw materials to develop synthetic detergents to replace soap, and successfully made a compound with decontamination effect, which is synthetic The origin of detergents.
If synthetic washing products are distinguished according to the properties of the product, there are powder detergents, liquid detergents and laundry creams, etc., and powder detergents are divided into ordinary powder detergents and concentrated detergents. Among them, concentrated detergents represent The development trend of washing powder in today's world; for liquid detergents, according to the different objects and uses of washing, there are laundry detergents (including ordinary detergents, silk detergents, bleaching agents, softeners, etc.), dishwashing detergents, etc. (There are hand dishwashing detergents, machine dishwashing detergents), personal hygiene detergents (such as hand soap, shower gel, shampoo) and so on.
Main ingredients and uses of synthetic detergents
There are many types of synthetic detergents, but their important components are nothing more than the following two parts: actives (ie, surfactants) and washing aids. At present, the most widely used surfactant is sodium alkyl benzene sulfonate. The main component of the commercially available washing powder is sodium alkyl benzene sulfonate, and its content is 10%-30% [3]. Other synthetic detergents include fatty acid salts, alkyl alcohol amides, fatty alcohol sulfates, Fatty alkyd polyoxyacetate (also known as Pingpinga), etc. Detergent auxiliaries include sodium triphosphate, sodium silicate, sodium sulfate, carboxymethyl cellulose (also known as CMC or chemical paste), peroxy salts, optical brighteners, enzymes, etc.
Surfactant
The active ingredient in synthetic detergents, surfactants are a class of organic compounds composed of hydrophilic and lipophilic groups. Generally, there are anionic surfactants (such as sodium fatty alcohol sulfate), cationic surfactants (such as alkyl trimethyl ammonium chloride), amphoteric surfactants (such as betaine surfactants) and nonionic surfactants Type surfactants (such as aliphatic higher alcohol polyoxyethylene adducts).
During washing, the lipophilic part penetrates deep into the interior of the oil stain, while the hydrophilic part is exposed in the aqueous medium. The dirt is decomposed and peeled off by a certain mechanical force, so as to achieve the effect of washing.
sodium tripolyphosphate
The content of 15%-25% in washing powder is often a sign of the quality of washing powder. It acts as a surfactant and increases detergency. At the same time, it can soften hard water and adjust the pH value of water to promote the removal of oil stains. However, the discharge of washing wastewater containing a large amount of phosphorus compounds into the waters will cause a large number of aquatic algae to grow, destroy the ecological balance in the water, and cause environmental pollution.
Sodium Silicate
Sodium silicate is an alkaline buffer that keeps laundry detergents at a certain level of alkalinity, thereby reducing their corrosiveness to metals.
Fluorescent whitening agent
Fluorescent whitening agents can absorb ultraviolet light and emit blue light, which can make white fabrics look particularly white, and make colored fabrics clear and bright.
