Simple science of laundry detergent

Blog   2021-08-11 18:55:50   zhaona   135   

1. What does the detergent wash?

The detergent is of course dirty. There are three main types of dirt commonly seen in daily life. Bread crumbs, rice grains, dust adhering to clothes, salt and amino acids in sweat, etc., these can be washed off with water. This is water-soluble dirt; oil stains during cooking, lipstick on clothes, etc., are upgraded Dirt, this kind of water can not be washed off, you need to use detergent or solvent to remove it.

There is also a type of dirt that can transform. It is the most difficult to deal with. When they have just adhered to clothes, they can be washed off with water. However, when there is enough time, they will be oxidized and transformed by air. The super dirt that is insoluble in water and oil can only be removed by other means at this time. Such common stubborn dirt includes traces of juice, milk, soy sauce, blood, urine, feces, ink, and tea. After being oxidized and deteriorated in the air, denatured proteins such as milk and blood stains need to be removed with protease, and dust and dirt should be removed with a detergent with strong dispersion.

2. What are the common laundry detergents?

In the 1860s, my country began the industrial production of washing powder. Later, with the advent of washing machines, laundry soap was not suitable for washing machines due to its limitations (a new type of liquid soap is now appearing, which will be discussed later), and the mainstream laundry detergent in my country has become washing powder. In recent years, under the same level of detergency, the cost of raw materials for the production of laundry detergent is lower, and it is more convenient and milder to use. Therefore, laundry detergent has replaced washing powder as the mainstream laundry detergent.

In short, common laundry detergents include laundry soap, washing powder, laundry liquid, and new liquid soaps produced to cope with the shortcomings of laundry soaps that are not suitable for washing machines. In addition, there are fabric softeners. The fabric softener is not mainly used for decontamination, but to make the fabric soft and fluffy and eliminate static electricity. It is generally used with washing powder/liquid detergent.

3. What are the popular enzyme detergents nowadays?

The concept of "enzyme" has been fascinated, especially in the food and pharmaceutical industries. What multiple effects, detoxification and beauty, weight loss and health care, and even cancer prevention and treatment, is to cure all diseases. In fact, ferment nutrition refers to a kind of low-salt liquid containing biologically active substances extracted by deep fermentation of plants. The catalytically active components in enzymes are mainly enzymes. Therefore, enzyme laundry detergent is essentially a type of enzyme laundry detergent/liquid.

Enzyme-added laundry detergent/liquid has a long history. Due to the specificity of enzyme catalysis, an enzyme can only catalyze one or a class of substances, and different enzymes may be required for specific dirt. There are four types of enzymes commonly found in detergents: protease, lipase, amylase and cellulase. Among them, the most widely used is protease.

Protease: Catalyzes the decomposition of protein stains. Such as milk stains, blood stains, eggs, gravy, grass stains, feces, etc.

Amylase: Catalyzes the decomposition of starch stains. Stubborn stains such as rice, starch, tomato sauce, barbecue sauce, salad dressing, etc.

Lipase: Catalyzes the decomposition of grease stains. Cosmetic stains such as frying oil, salad oil, gravy, and lipstick for ladies.

Cellulase: It removes the fiber fluff and microspheres generated by friction, and the dirt inside the fiber, so that the clothes can be bright as new.

4. Is enzyme laundry detergent (enzyme added laundry detergent) really safe?

Add enzyme laundry detergent/liquid (enzyme laundry detergent), whether it is safe or not depends on the specific ingredients. In addition, detergents with enzymes cannot be used to wash silk and wool fabrics containing protein fibers, because enzymes can destroy the fiber structure of protein, thereby affecting the fastness and luster of silk and wool fabrics.

5. Are the surfactants of various laundry detergents the same?

The main effective ingredient of detergents is surfactants, so surfactants are indispensable when talking about detergents.

As I just said, soap is produced by chemical reaction between animal and vegetable fats and alkali (originally plant ash, now sodium hydroxide), so the surfactant of laundry soap is generally an anionic surfactant-fatty acid sodium. Fatty acid sodium is a fatty acid (weakly acidic) strong alkali (sodium hydroxide) salt, which is hydrolyzed in water to become alkaline. Therefore, laundry soap is basically weakly alkaline.

Similarly, for the new type of liquid soap produced for machine washing, the active ingredient is also an anionic surfactant, but the difference is that the strong alkali uses potassium hydroxide instead of sodium hydroxide. Therefore, if you see fatty acid potassium in the ingredients, it is generally a new type of liquid soap that contains 30% of fatty acid potassium. Note: Weakly alkaline liquid soap and laundry soap cannot wash silk and wool fabrics.

Someone said, I am willing to use liquid soap, but others don't like it. Can you make a neutral liquid soap that can wash silk and wool fabrics?

In fact, such detergents are also available. Liquid soap is weakly alkaline because the potassium fatty acid is hydrolyzed in water to become alkaline. If the organic weak base triethanolamine is used for neutralization, it can be made into neutral liquid soap. However, such neutral liquid soaps are not resistant to hard water, and calcium soaps are easily formed in hard water to gather together and adhere to the silk and wool fabrics, making it difficult to wash. Therefore, neutral liquid soap must be compounded with lime soap dispersant before it can be used for washing silk and wool fabrics.

It should be noted that it is best to use the "dense dip and thin wash" washing method for liquid soap. This is because the liquid soap is not resistant to hard water, and even if the calcium soap dispersant is added, the formation of calcium soap cannot be prevented, so "dense dip and thin wash" is recommended. "Thick soaking" refers to the soaking process. Soak the clothes with 5% soap that is 1.5-2 times the weight of the clothes for 10-20 minutes, so that the concentration of fatty acid sodium in contact with the dirt is high, which is conducive to decontamination; "thin washing" refers to the after soaking Add water to wash.

The surface active agent of ordinary washing powder is mainly anionic surface active agent. In addition, there are builders (such as polyphosphate, mainly used to reduce water hardness and buffer pH), soda ash and sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (Prevent the redeposition of dirt). There is also 40%~50% Glauber's salt in ordinary washing powder as a filler, which is more suitable for hand washing. Concentrated detergents are generally based on non-ionic surfactants, which are low-foam detergents, easy to rinse and suitable for machine washing.

Water hardness in my country is relatively high, especially in the north. Because water hardness has a greater impact on detergency, non-ionic surfactants that are not affected by water hardness are generally used in ordinary laundry detergents. This is also the reason why laundry detergent is low in alkaline and mild in performance.

6. What is a neutral laundry detergent?

Also called special laundry detergent. Neutral laundry detergent includes silky hair laundry detergent, baby laundry detergent and so on. The pH value is generally around 7, which is relatively mild.

Silk and wool laundry detergent: Both silk and wool are protein fibers, which are more stable to weak acids and more sensitive to alkalis, so avoid using alkaline detergents. Should use special detergent for silk, special detergent for wool, or neutral detergent. Silk and wool fabrics are not suitable for machine washing and should be washed by hand. The water temperature should not exceed 60℃, and do not wring out hard. The special laundry detergent generally has the applicable fabric on the package, so please check it carefully when you choose it.

Baby laundry detergent: Baby clothes are dirty, and there are a lot of hard-to-wash vegetable juice and milk stains on it. Baby clothes cleaners should have effective ingredients to remove vegetables and milk stains, and should use mild materials that will not irritate the baby's delicate skin, and make the washed clothes soft and comfortable to wear on the baby.

It is worth mentioning that although many brands have introduced baby laundry detergent, in my country’s national standards, there is no difference between the quality of adult laundry detergent and infant laundry detergent. Therefore, in this sense Said that the quality and safety of these infant laundry detergents are not necessarily higher than that of adult laundry detergents. Moreover, the current national standards do not carry out "full-component labeling" for laundry detergents. Therefore, the safety of infant laundry detergents is not known by ordinary people in any way except for business promotion. But some people will question: Is the propaganda of the business credible? Here I recommend a reliable washing powder supplier.

AoGrand

As a trusted washing powder OEM manufacturer, the first thing is to have sufficient production qualifications. As the leading domestic laundry detergent manufacturer, AoGrand Group has many qualifications such as EPA, FDA, CE, MSDS, ISO9001, ISO14001, BV, and GSP, etc. In addition, AoGrand Group has also won many awards. As a trusted washing powder OEM manufacturer, it must have sufficient productivity. AoGrand Group has nearly 1,000 employees and a modern factory of 700,000 square meters to ensure sufficient production capacity. Such a huge production capacity is also in many daily chemical companies. few. All in all, whether you want to customize washing powder or need washing powder OEM, AOGRAND is your first choice.