Optimum detergency conditions with nonionic surfactants

Spreading of nanofluids driven by the structural disjoining pressure gradient

“…The science behind detergency has been studied [6,7], but the mechanism is not fully understood. It is believed [8] that two stages are involved in detergency: (i) the 'roll-up' of the oily pollutant into the shape of a droplet that occurs as a result of the imbalance of forces at the contact line due to the presence of the surfactant in the aqueous cleansing solution and (ii) the 'emulsification' of the oil droplet in the aqueous solution after detachment from the solid surface.…”

CPS LG 315 Correlation between the phase behavior of ternary systems and removal of oil in the washing process

“…It has been shown that a maximum of oil removal occurs in aqueous solutions of pure C12E4 and C~2E5 approximately 15 ~ above the cloud point (CP) [8,9]. The authors explain this finding in macroscopic terms by the phase behavior of the surfactants: the concentrated surfactant phase formed above the cloud point shows a high solubilization capacity for the oil.…”

Relationship between Oil–Water Interfacial Tension and Oily Soil Removal in Mixed Surfactant Systems

“…The drop in the oil-water interfacial tension is related directly to the surface pressure exerted by the surfactant molecules, the kinetics of adsorption of which may again be described by Eq. [2]. However, in this case, there is an additional lift force to be considered.…”

“…There have been also attempts to correlate oily soil removal with some easily measurable physical property of the wash system. In particular, the oil-water interfacial tension is one property that has been used to correlate oily soil detergency (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7). A preliminary look at correlating a complex kinetic process like detergency with a thermodynamic parameter like interfacial tension appears to be flawed.…”

“…There have been a large number of studies on evolution of guidelines for superior oily soil removal, and the most popular in recent literature is the approach based on a microemulsion formation (1)(2)(3)(4). Microemulsions are thermodynamically stable droplet-like or bicontinuous isotropic dispersions of oil-rich and aqueous domains without macroscopic order which are stabilized by surfactants at a relatively low surfactant-to-oil ratio.…”