Liquid detergents from cationic, anionic and nonionic surfactants. adsorption, detergency and antistatic properties

The adsorption of a mixture of cationic (c) and anionic (a) surfactants on cellulose fibers is highly dependent on the molar ratio a/c with a maximum at a/c = 0.9. When a/c is > 1.1 the adsorption is negligible. The presence of nonionic surfactants in the solution impairs the adsorption of the ionic species; this effect is stronger for nonionic surfactants with long alkyl and polyglycol ether chains. The detergency—measured on WFK cotton cloth—is highest when a/c > 1 and decreases sharply when a/c goes below 0.8. The antistatic effect for a formulated liquid detergent based on these principles was compared to one commercial liquid detergent with softening and antistatic properties and one commercial detergent powder, and the test detergent was shown to be a better antistatic agent on polyester, polyacrylonitrile and polyamide. The detergency was about the same for the two liquid detergents.