Palm Oil Removal from Fabric Using Microemulsion‐Based Formulations

Abstract

Laundry detergency of palm oil on a polyester/ cotton blend was measured using an anionic extended surfactant/nonionic secondary alcohol surfactant blend under conditions corresponding to ultralow oil/water interfacial tension microemulsion formation. The oil removal for the surfactant blend could exceed 90%, which was greater than that for either component surfactant alone or for a commercial liquid laundry detergent. Presoaking produced better detergency than increasing the number of wash cycles beyond two due to fabric abrasion (leading to a brightness decrease) with an excessive number of wash cycles. Higher oil contact angles and shorter oil droplet detachment times were found to correspond to higher detergency. High speed photography showed that snap-off occurred rather than roll-up for these systems.

Analysis of Cleaning Process for Several Kinds of Soil by Probability Density Functional Method

“…Do studied the removal of vegetable oil and semisolid fats using a surfactant mixture system composed of an anionic extended surfactant and a branched surfactant 17 . Thathakit studied the removal of palm oil soil using a mixture of an anionic extended surfactant and a nonionic surfactant 18 , and Endo studied triolein removal using mixtures of a nonionic surfactant and ampholytic surfactant 19 .…”

Laundry Detergency of Solid Non-Particulate Soil Using Microemulsion-Based Formulation

“…The aqueous surfactant solution and oil were added at a 1:1 v/v ratio to a series of 15-ml flat-bottomed screw-capped tubes 1,19,20,24 . Extended surfactant mixture systems were formulated at a high surfactant concentration of 4 wt with different concentrations of SMDNS from 0-1 and different NaCl concentrations in order to find a minimum hydrophilic linker and salinity for formation of a Winsor Type III microemulsion.…”

“…The data of identified microemulsion types were used to construct a fish diagram, which is a graph of the total surfactant concentration vs. the NaCl concentration 19 . Fish diagrams are generally used to determine the minimum surfactant concentration required to form a Winsor Type III microemulsion, which is known as the critical microemulsion concentration CμC .…”

“…The amount of residual oil was extracted by submerging a swatch in isopropanol for 24 h at room temperature, and then the extracted solution was analyzed by an ultraviolet/visible spectrophotometer Hewlett-Packard, 8452A 19,28 . The oil removal was calculated from subtracting the remaining oil residue after washing from the origi-nal oil content in each swatch.…”

“…Hence, it becomes easy to form a middle-phase microemulsion, which provides both a high solubilization and ultralow IFT, leading to various applications, especially detergency 15 18 . Tanthakit et al 19 investigated palm oil removal from fabrics using microemulsionbased formulations based upon a mixed surfactant system of C 14 21 reported that a mixture of a linear extended surfactant C 10 -PO 18 -EO 2 -SO 4 Na and a hydrophobic twin-tailed sodium dioctylsulfosuccinate surfactant showed synergism in a Winsor type III microemulsion formation, leading to a high detergency performance of vegetable oils and semi-solid fats at a low salinity and a low washing temperature. Attaphong et al 22 studied the relationship of microemulsion formation of an extended surfactant and canola oil detergency at a low surfactant concentration and low washing temperature, and found that a good detergency performance at a low washing temperature corresponded with a lower IFT.…”