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Detergency by surfactant/cosurfactant systems
Author(s) -
Krüssmann Helmut,
Bercovici Rodica
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
journal of chemical technology and biotechnology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.64
H-Index - 117
eISSN - 1097-4660
pISSN - 0268-2575
DOI - 10.1002/jctb.280500311
Subject(s) - pulmonary surfactant , phase inversion , lamellar structure , amphiphile , chemical engineering , nonionic surfactant , chemistry , phase (matter) , fatty alcohol , organic chemistry , materials science , chromatography , membrane , polymer , biochemistry , copolymer , engineering , crystallography
Abstract The influence of amphiphilic additives on phase transitions and detergency of nonionic surfactant was examined to solve low temperature detergency problems and to reduce the amount of surfactants necessary to achieve good cleaning results. Optimum detergency correlates to the formation of the lamellar liquid crystalline L α ‐phase and to the intermediate maximum of the phase‐inversion temperature curves. Medium chain alkanols showed as optimum additives which improved low temperature detergency and allowed a reduction of the amount of surfactants necessary. However, fatty acids were not effective, and low degree ethoxylates of fatty alcohols were less effective cosurfactants. The interrelations found could be transferred to solve practical washing problems.