Green Laundry Detergents: How do Detergents Work – a look at surfactant chemistry
A Look at Surfactant Chemistry
To understand how green laundry detergents work, you must first answer the question: how do detergents in work in general. You will find the answer to this question by looking at surfactants. Surfactant chemistry is the basis of how detergents really do their job. Surfactants are molecules, which can be attracted to water-repelling substances at one end of the molecule and to water and water-loving substances at the other end.
A surfactant molecule has an electrically charged (water loving) head and a electrically neutral (non-water-loving) tail which is eight to twenty carbon atoms long.
As the surfactant molecule is bopping around in the water of your washing machine it comes in contact with some oily or insoluble substance on your clothes. The tail of the surfactant molecule find itself sticking to this stuff. At the same time, the water loving head of the surfactant molecule will continue to maintain a strong interaction between itself and the water molecules that are surrounding it. In this way surfactant molecules bridge the surface of a water repelling substance and the water in which the substance is immersed.
How do detergents work? Detergents Emulsify!
In a washing machine over time, more and more surfactant molecules gather on the surface of the oil or soil on the laundry fibers as described above. Eventually so many surfactant molecules gather on the surface of the oil or soil that they are able to actually surround oil or dirt and roll it up into globules. The end result of this is that the oily globules are lifted up off from the laundry surface and out into the motion and of the wash water. Once suspended in this manner the oil and dirt globules remains floating free surrounded as it is (on the outside) by a layer of water loving surfactant heads. In this way oily substances effectively become emulsified by surfactant molecules, and removed from the laundry that you are trying to clean.
Fine Tuning the Process of How Detergents Work in Your Washing Machine.
This whole chemical interplay of detergent, dirt and water needs just the right mix of water and quantity and nature of surfactant molecule to take place appreciably, in other words, to clean your laundry. If there are too few surfactant molecules, and too little energy in the water, the surfactants will not be able to surround and carry away oil and dirt globules as described. However, too many surfactant molecules will cause a problem as well because they will stick to every fiber present and copious rinsing will be required to really rid the laundry of the thus resultant surfactant layer.
Surfactant activity is also affected by water hardness (mineral content of the wash water). Higher mineral ion content of wash water impacts the activities and availability of the surfactant molecules. The more minerals there are in the wash water, the less cleaning the surfactant molecules can actually do.
There are different ways to address the problems that arise in a washing environment due to water hardness. More substances must be brought into the mix in order to deal with wash water mineral content. The detergent Industry has turned to the use of powerful, and environmentally complex molecules to eliminate water hardness interference in surfactant cleaning abilities. However, there are other, more simple ways of addressing these laundry cleaning issues. Green laundry detergents will make use of these simpler solutions in their formulations.
More Details on Surfactants
Green Laundry Detergents
Tons and tons and tons of laundry detergents are being produced and used across the planet every day. What exactly is in a laundry detergent mixture? How does it effect the health of people and the environment? What is a green laundry detergent.? Find out here.