Surfactants
Kristy Astudillo
What is Surfactants?
surfactants are a large group of surface active substances with a great number of applications. Surfactants are compounds used in an array of cleaning products for their ability to lower surface tension in water. Surfactants make cleaners work better.
Uses of Surfactants
Surfactants are added to cleaning agents like detergent. It allows the detergent to mix into water helping cleaning agents to remove dirt from the surface being cleaned. If we did not have surfactants then soap and water would not mix together but the soap would just roll off the water making cleaning a difficult process.
how soap and detergent work
A detergent is an effective cleaning product because it contains one or more surfactants. This dual nature of surfactants molecules boosts the wetting ability of water. This means that water containing surfactants can more easily penetrate and disperse dirt and stains.
The importance of Surfactants
Both soap and Detergents contain cleaning ingredients known as surfactants. One end of the surfactant molecule is attracted to water but not soil, and the other molecule is attracted to oil but not water. Overall surfactant makes cleaning much easier for cleaner and help mix water and soup together.