Detersive systems

Although it is impossible to Hst all the practical detersive systems that might be encountered, a large proportion fall in a small number of classes. This classification disregards surfactant stmcture and type of substrate (fibrous or hard surface) and is restricted to a consideration of the soil present on the substrate, the mechanical action employed, the bath ratio, and the detergent used. Some of the more commonly encountered detersive systems are classified on this basis in Table 1. 

Surfactants. The most important components of detersive systems are, of course, the surfactants described elsewhere in the E,ntycIopedia. 

Even the simplest detersive system is surprisingly complex and heterogeneous. It can nevertheless be conceptually resolved into simpler systems that are amenable to theoretical treatment and understanding. These simpler systems are represented by models for substrate-soHd soil and substrate-Hquid sod. In practice, many sod systems include soH—Hquid mixtures. However, removal of these systems can generally be analyzed in terms of the two simpler model systems. Although these two systems differ markedly in behavior and stmcture, and require separate treatment, there are certain overriding principles that apply to both. 

Adsorption of bath components is a necessary and possibly the most important and fundamental detergency effect. Adsorption (qv) is the mechanism whereby the interfacial free energy values between the bath and the soHd components (sofld soil and substrate) of the system are lowered, thereby increasing the tendency of the bath to separate the soHd components from one another. Furthermore, the soHd components acquire electrical charges that tend to keep them separated, or acquire a layer of strongly solvated radicals that have the same effect. If it were possible to foUow the adsorption effects in a detersive system, in all their complex ramifications and interactions, the molecular picture of soil removal would be greatly clarified. 

In a detersive system containing a dilute surfactant solution and a substrate bearing a soHd polar sod, the first effect is adsorption of surfactant at the sod—bath interface. This adsorption is equivalent to the formation of a thin layer of relatively concentrated surfactant solution at the interface, which is continuously renewable and can penetrate the sod phase. Osmotic flow of water and the extmsion of myelin forms foHows the penetration, with ultimate formation of an equdibrium phase. This equdibrium phase may be microemulsion rather than Hquid crystalline, but in any event it is fluid and flushable... 

Commercial hybrid materials, silicon-based, 73 538—540 Commercial hydrazines, physical properties of, 73 565t Commercial hydrolysis, in vinyl alcohol polymerization, 25 609, 612t Commercial immunoassays, for clinical applications, 74 140 Commercial inks, 74 320 Commercial laundering, detersive systems for, 8 413t... 

Houben-Hoesch reaction, 12 179 Household appliances, virtual two-way SMA devices in, 22 348 Household laundering, 4 45-46 detersive systems for, <5 413t Household products emulsion use in, 10 129 organic esters in, 10 518-519 Household uses, sodium sulfates in,... 

Metal oxide sensors (MOS), smart, 22 717 Metal oxide supported catalysts, 5 336-337 coke formation on, 5 267—270 Metal passivation, in industrial water treatment, 26 137 Metal peroxides, 18 410 Metal phosphates, tertiary, 18 840 Metal-phosphorus alloys, 19 59 Metal phthalocyanines, electrochromic materials, 6 572t, 576-577 Metal prefinishing, detersive systems for, 8 413t... 

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