Clean It Up

UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Adam Eastman on February 24, 2016, 09:31:07 pm

Title: How do detergents work?
Post by: Adam Eastman on February 24, 2016, 09:31:07 pm

Hi all

Just trying to get my head round how detergents break the bond between the soil and pile fiber?

I believe I understand correctly the detergent contains a chemicals called surfactants and these have a hydrophilic head which bonds to water and repeals oil, the surfactants also have a hydrophobic tail which bonds to oil and repeals water. I get that the molecules bond water and oil together to produce an emulsion, but how does this break the bond between soil and pile fiber?

Is soil in carpet made from oil and water, and does the surfactants turn this soil into an emulsion which for some reason can not attach to the pile fibers?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Title: Re: How do detergents work?
Post by: john martin on February 24, 2016, 10:41:20 pm

Think thats pretty much it  ...
the bonding process u described ... combined with the mechanical action of cleaning itself removes the soil from the fiber


i copied this  ...

So we can see that one in the molecule is hydrophobic (in other words, hates water) and the other end of the molecule is hydrophilic (in other words loves water).

So what happens when you wash the dishes, is that the oil loving part of the sufactant molecule looks for other bits of oil in the water, and wrap themselves around them, like this:

You can see that the non-polar part of the molecule is facing inwards, and is wrapped around the oil, and the polar part of the molecule is facing outwards where it can interact with the water.  The resulting structure is called a micelle.

So the micelle can happily move through the water because the part that is facing the water is polar so it is perfectly happy, and the nonpolar part is locked away inside the micelle.

love throwing in the word micelle to confuse the  MP guys  :D

Title: Re: How do detergents work?
Post by: Dave_Lee on February 26, 2016, 04:39:18 pm

Yeah basically, with the use of agitation, the soil particle is bit by bit surrounded, until totally enclosed. With HWE the surrounded particle is then removed in the rinse by vacuum extraction. With systems like Encapsulation, the surrounded or encapsulated  particle is allowed to dry, the chemistry being that it dries to a solid particle containing the soil within, and is later removed by vacuum.
Dave.

Title: Re: How do detergents work?
Post by: Ian Harper on February 29, 2016, 09:04:05 am

Adam Eastman

Here is a link to a PDF file that explains everything about detergents and how they work. and is a great example of how much is left out of basic training courses in carpet cleaning. this is basic stuff that anyone can understand but once leant will make cleaning much easier. It also shows how these groups and people that run these courses are not serving its attendants well.

Put this info along side products and your choice of what to use is so much easier. the right tool (product) for the job



http://www.cleaning-carpet.co.uk/how-do-detergents-work/ (http://www.cleaning-carpet.co.uk/how-do-detergents-work/)

Title: Re: How do detergents work?
Post by: COLIN BRIGHT on March 01, 2016, 09:46:39 pm

dont care...as long as they work