Detergents.

You may remember the saponoification of oil ! When palm oil is reacted with Strong
Caustic soda solution, it yielded sodium salt of palmitic acid ( Sodium Palmitate)
which is a detergent, which we also called soap. Or in other words, we can name
Soap as one example of detergents.

Water, which is the medium commonly used for cleaning, has a property called
surface tension. In the body of the water, each molecule is surrounded and
attracted by other water molecules. However, at the surface, those molecules are
surrounded by other water molecules only on the water side. A tension is created as
the water molecules at the surface are pulled into the body of the water. This
tension causes water to bead up on surfaces (glass, fabric), which slows wetting of
the surface and inhibits the cleaning process. You can see surface tension at work
by placing a drop of water onto a counter top. The drop will hold its shape and will
not spread.
In the cleaning process, surface tension must be reduced so water can spread and
wet surfaces. Detergents in solutions, adhere to the surface and lower the Surface
free energy ( Gibbs Energy). Hence these chemicals are called surface active agents
or Surfactants. Surfactants perform other important functions in cleaning, such as
loosening, emulsifying (dispersing in water) and holding soil in suspension until it
can be rinsed away. Surfactants can also provide alkalinity, which is useful in
removing acidic soils.

Depending on the higher performance on a specific property of a detergent, which

is due to the chemical nature of the detergent, they are named as

Wetting agents, washing agents, dispersing agents, Emulsifying agents, Leveling

agents and even as Fixing agents.

Soap is an anionic surfactant. Other anionic as well as nonionic surfactants are the
main ingredients in today's detergents. Now let's look closer at the chemistry of
surfactants.

We can represent a Detergent molecule diagrammatically as shown above. It has at

least one each Hydrophylic end And Hydrophobic parts. Hydrophobic part is also
Lypophylic And Hydrophylic part is Lypophobic
In order to keep the water repllent end away from water in an aqueous phase
,Detergent molecules rearranges in to different shapes called ( micelle )

Surfactants are classified by their ionic (electrical charge) properties in water:

anionic (negative charge), nonionic (no charge), cationic (positive charge) and
amphoteric (either positive or negative charge).

End group of Hydrophylic part and short hydrophobic end gives good wetting
agents. They are not good washing agents. WHEN THE HYPROPHOBIC PART IS
LONG, THEY BECOME GOOD WASHING AGENTS. When tow long hydrophobic ends
are having a hydriphylic part at the middle, they become good washing agents
with good wetting and foaming properties

Classification according to ionic character.

Examples of Anionic Detergents:

1. Fatty acid salts R-CO.O- -Na+.

2. Akyl Sulphonates, R - SO3- Na+,

Alkyl Aryl Sulphonate.

O
O
S Na
O
H3C

Examples for non ionic detergents:

1. Poly ethylene and poly propylenes oxides,

2. Poly amines.

Examples for Cationic detergents:

1. Quaternary amonimum compounds, Quaternary Phosphonium

compounds

Examples for Amphoteric detergents:

1. Aminino acids ( Like Albumin)