Non-ionic surfactants are compounds that are used in detergents and other cleaning products to help remove grease and dirt. They are made up of both a hydrophilic ("water-loving") and a hydrophobic ("water-repellent") part, but they don't contain dissociable functional groups, so they don't separate into ions in water. This is what gives them their name: "non-ionic".
There is no purity because these surfactants are always mixtures of surfactant homologes of different EO-chain length. They have a content of water and of the starting compound. Both can be determined by analytical methods, but not 'calculated'
Nandagopal Hudait
Alphox-200 is produced by the ethoxylation of alkylphenols, typically nonylphenol or octylphenol, resulting in a range of ethoxylate compounds. It is necessary to find at least nonylphenol ethoxylate and purify it by adsorption on a silica gel column.
Yuri Mirgorod no need to purify the right degree of ethoxylation is sufficient for excellent performance, possibly by 'purification' performance might suffer in some cases.
However, for reasons of environmental damage these products should be replaced by more environmentally benign compounds.
Titus Sobisch
A scientist asks about surfactant purification. I wrote how to purify, and you remind me of the productivity of the plant where I worked.
- Badges
- Science topic