Analysis of Synthetic Anionic Detergent Compositions

Abstract

In the manufacture of synthetic anionic detergents, it is desirable to obtain accurate control analyses of the product with a minimum expenditure of effort and time.The main ingredients of interest are active (sodium alkyl sulfates or alkylbenzenesulfonates), sodium sulfate and, occasionally, low molecular weight sulfonate additives such as benzene-H, toluene-A, and xylenesulfonates. In addition, color of the product is quite important from the standpoint of quality control. Epton's quaternary titration procedure was quite satis-

Spectrophotometric Determination of Alkyl Benzenesulfonate Detergents in Surface Water and Sewage

“…Carbon has been reported as an adsorbent for alkyl benzenesulfonate (12,28,30), but under conditions giving quantitative desorption, the benzenesulfonate is not separated from all interfering materials. Alkyl benzenesulfonate can be extracted from hydrochloric acid solutions with chloroform (5) or ether (14), and the present authors found that it can be extracted from 3.6 " sulfuric acid with chloroform. In all these cases, however, the protein interference is increased, because reduction of the pH increases the anionic detergent binding power of proteins (4).…”

The automated determination of alkyl aryl sulfonates in spray‐dried detergents by ultraviolet absorption

“…Products containing ultraviolet absorbing materials such as sodium toluene or xylene sulfonates cannot be analyzed by the method because of their positive interference with alkyl aryl sulfonates. Although methods are available for removing interferences of this type (7), their use prior to analysis would increase analytical time to a point where the method would not be attractive for control purposes.…”

The analytical separation of surface active agents

“…High tool wt alkyl awl sulfonates (alkyl chain lengths of 4 carbons or more) can be separated from short chain sulfonates, such as toluene sulfonate, by extraction from an acidified aqueous solution with ethyl ether (16). The alkyl benzene sulfonate content of the ether layer nmy be determined by UV spectrophotometry (17) or by cationic titration (18,19).…”