Builders, detergent defined

Sodium tripolyphosphate (STP) was commercially available in the mid-1940s and had replaced TSPP because of its superior detergent processing, solubility, and hardness ion-sequestering characteristics. Sequestration is defined as the reaction of a cation with an anion to form a soluble complex. The sequestration of Ca and Mg " ions leads to softened water and is the most important function of any detergent builder [3, 4]. 

Liquid detergent process patents frequently define both compositional and process requirements, such as raw material concentrations and specifications, order of addition of critical components, thermal history, premix or adjuvant preparation methods, product/process stabilizers, distributive and dispersive mixing requirements, and process instrumentation. These patents apply to the production of primary raw material constituents, such as surfactants, builders, conditioning agents, rheology regulators, hydrotropes, disinfectants, bleach additives, etc., in addition to the specification of fully formulated detergent systems. 

The builders were first tested alone, with no other detergent-active additives, to evaluate their intrinsic primary detergent power in hard water (Ca, Mg) at low temperature. The products evaluated were mostly well defined, and the goal was to correlate their fairly well-known base properties with the observed detergent effect. 

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