Commonly used wet wipes liquid chemical raw materials for down jacket cleaning wipes and kitchen cleaning wipes: alkyl polyglycosides

Alkyl polyglycoside (APG) is a green non-ionic surfactant synthesized from polysaccharides and polyols.  As one of the new basic ingredients of wet wipes liquid, it has the advantages of anionic surfactants and is known as "industrial MSG".  It has good synergy with different types of surfactants.  APG has the characteristics of high ecological safety, strong surface activity, and less foaming, which is particularly prominent in wet wipes liquid applications.

APG is derived from renewable resources and has performance that other surfactants cannot match.  Therefore, it is widely used in many fields such as petroleum, medical care, and building materials.  In recent years, APG has received high attention in the formulation research of daily chemicals, especially wet wipes liquid, due to its fine foam, good mildness, good emulsification and compounding synergistic properties.  The green clothing cleaning wet wipes liquid developed with it as the main raw material not only meets the decontamination requirements, but is also more environmentally friendly.

Down jacket cleaning wet wipes liquid must not only meet the decontamination requirements for clothing detergents in national standards, but also take into account the user experience.  In order to achieve a refreshing and non-greasy effect, the viscosity of the wet wipes liquid needs to be controlled in the formula;  since wet wipes are mainly cleaned by wiping rather than rinsing, low-foam or even no-foam requirements are put forward for wet wipes liquid.  In the specific formula design, APG with good compatibility and solubilization was selected, combined with AEO-9 with low foaming and strong decontamination, and amino acid-type surfactant SCA with low viscosity and mildness, to optimize the formula of wet wipes liquid.

In the experimental design, APG was used as the main surfactant, its mass fraction was fixed at 12%, and the total mass fraction of surfactants was fixed at 20%.  When preparing wet wipes liquid, first stir a quarter of the deionized water in the formula with the surfactant at a constant temperature of 40°C until it is evenly mixed, and then add the defoamer and the remaining deionized water at room temperature and continue stirring until it is completely dispersed.  The specific formula of wet wipes liquid is shown in Table 1.

Evaluation method

1. Evaluation of wet wipes liquid stability

The stability of wet wipes liquid directly affects its decontamination and emulsification ability. According to national standards, down jacket cleaning wet wipes liquid is placed in 40±2℃ and -10±2℃ environment for 30 days to observe whether there is stratification or precipitation, and to judge its heat and cold resistance stability.

2. Evaluation of wet wipes liquid foaming

It is generally believed that the more foam, the stronger the decontamination, but what really determines the decontamination effect is the role of active molecules. Therefore, low-foam or even non-foaming wet wipes liquid is more popular in environmentally friendly daily chemicals. This experiment tests the foaming amount and foam stability of wet wipes liquid in a measuring cylinder by the oscillation method, and compares it with commercially available laundry detergent.

3. Evaluation of wet wipes liquid surface tension

The surface tension reflects the decontamination ability of surfactant molecules. The surface tension of wet wipes liquid is measured by the liquid film pulling method in GB/T 22237-2008 standard to evaluate its decontamination performance.

4. Evaluation of wet wipes liquid detergency

The decontamination effect of wet wipes liquid was evaluated by using a simulated household washing method and comparing different types of dirty cloth (carbon black, sebum, edible oil) with standard TC white cloth. The spunlace nonwoven fabric was soaked in the prepared wet wipes liquid for 12 hours, and then the dirty cloth was wiped under standard conditions, and its cleaning ability was evaluated by colorimetry or whiteness meter.

Results and discussion

1. Effect of chain length on the performance of APG wet wipes liquid

The chain length of APG has a significant effect on its foam, emulsification, wettability and other properties. The results in Table 2 show that APG1214 has the best comprehensive performance, especially suitable for the low foam and mild requirements of wet wipes liquid.

2. Effect of different proportions of formulas on the performance of wet wipes liquid

Under the premise of 20% total active matter, the ratio of AEO-9 and SCA was adjusted to optimize the performance of wet wipes liquid. Table 3 shows that the foam volume of all 7 formulas is lower than that of commercial laundry detergents, the viscosity of wet wipes liquid is moderate, and the stability is good, which basically meets the application requirements of low foam, refreshing and non-sticky.

3. Biodegradability of wet wipes liquid

APG wet wipes liquid has excellent eco-degradability. Experiments have shown that its primary degradation rate can reach 90% within 9 days, and the final degradation products are harmless to the environment. After compounding with other active agents, the degradation rate of wet wipes liquid can be further improved.

4. Effect of wet wipes liquid on detergency

Through the standard dirty cloth wiping experiment, it was found that formula 5 (APG12%, AEO-9 5%, SCA 3%) had the best detergency performance on various stains and the best comprehensive performance.

Conclusion

Based on the green surfactant APG, this paper developed an efficient cleaning wet wipes liquid for down jackets. In the experiment, the wet wipes liquid showed the best comprehensive performance. The wet wipes liquid has the advantages of low foam, low viscosity, strong detergency, mild and environmentally friendly. This formula provides a new idea for solving the problem of difficult cleaning of heavy clothes, and also opens up a new path for the portability and diversification of clothing cleaning products, with broad market prospects.