Detergents, clothing

H D Rowe, Detergents, clothing and the consumer with sensitive skin International Journal of Consumer Studies, 2006 30 369-377. 

Some companies, often inspired by nature s incredible powers as seen in some plants and insects, are interested in designing surface treatment methods that can result in self-cleaning surfaces or self-ironing clothes surfaces that do not need detergents, clothes that do not need ironing ... 

Cleaning of the body and clothes has been around for centuries. However, prewash soil and stain removers made their appearance in the 1960s. With the ban of phosphates in laundry detergents, clothes were not becoming as clean as they once were. The use of synthetic fibers also increased the need for a product to treat and remove stains. 

These problems can be dealt with by usiag artificial test cloths impregnated with various approximations of natural soils such as vacuum cleaner dust, dirt from air conditioner filters, clays, carbon black, fatty acids, dirty motor oil, and artificial sebum, either alone or ia combination (37,94—98). The soils are appHed by sprayiag, immersion, or padding. If the soils are carefully appHed, reproducible results can be obtained. Soil test cloths can be of great help ia detergency studies, when used with an understanding of their limitations. 

It is a water softener in detergents, and an emulsifier to suspend oils and prevent them from redepositing on clothing in the wash. As a water softener, it combines with magnesium to sequester it from the detergent and keep it from precipitating onto clothing. 

Sodium carbonate is used in detergent formulas as a water softener, to lock up calcium and magnesium from the water. Calcium and magnesium would otherwise combine with the soap or detergents and form an insoluble scum that would stick to the clothes and the washing machine. 

Laundry detergent may also contain polyethylene glycol, a polymer that prevents dirt from redepositing on the clothes. This function used to be the job of phosphates. Another polymer used for this purpose is carboxy methyl cellulose, which is derived from natural cellulose but is very soluble in water. 

Studies on the detergency performance and cost optimization of the LAS/AS/ AES have been published [42,43]. Figure 19 shows the performance optimization on sebum soil on cotton cloth and a cotton/polyester permanent press cloth. 

Reference 81 describes the use of a salt prepared from a trialkylamine or tris(hydroxyalkyl)amine and sulfonated C8-C20 a-olefins together with a sulfobetaine in a stable liquid detergent having a high content of dissolved electrolytes. These liquid detergents are useful for hair, hands, and clothing. 

A detergent, imparting better flexibility to cotton cloth is produced by adding 1% sodium a-sulfo hardened tallow fatty acid methyl ester and 9% disodium a-sulfo hardened palm oil fatty acid to a mixture of 5% sodium n-dodecyl-benzenesulfonate, 5% a-C16-olefmsulfonate, 3% dimethyldistearylammonium chloride, 15% zeolite, 10% sodium silicate, 10% sodium carbonate, 2% soap, 35% Na2S04-7H20, and 5% water [84],... 

A number of wash tests were carried out which proved that certain LSDAs had the ability to potentiate the detergency of soap [24]. Detergency measurements were carried out using standard soiled cloths in 300 ppm water in the Tergo-... 

Addition of suitable builders, such as sodium silicates or sodium tripolyphosphate, could increase the detergency of soap-LSDA blend even further. A systematic investigation of three-component systems, soap-LSDA builder, showed that a detergency maximum could be attained which corresponded to a certain fixed ratio of components. Maximum detergency corresponded to an approximate composition of 75% soap, 10% MES, and 15% metasilicate. The tests were carried out at 50°C and at 300 ppm water hardness which is well above that of U.S. municipal water supplies. The principle of detergency potentiation of soap by an LSDA and builder was always evident, even when using other artificially soiled cloths, such as those supplied by U.S. Testing Co. or Testfabrics Inc. 

FIG. 2 Detergency (AR) behavior of the three-component system soap, sodium metasilicate, sodium methyl a-sulfotallowate (0.2% total detergent concentration, 50°C, 300 ppm water hardness, EMPA-101 cotton cloth). 

Skin Contact Wash the contaminated skin using soap or mild detergent and water remove the contaminated clothing immediately wash the skin using soap or mild detergent and water if irritation persists after washing, seek medical attention immediately. 

Remove all clothing and personal effects and decontaminate with soap and water. Do not use bleach or detergents containing bleach as they may interact with agents to produce toxic decomposition products. 

Dirt content of clothes for automatic wash detergent control... 

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