CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Hard water can decrease the detergency efficiency of surfactants due to a significant concentration of divalent cations as Ca2? or Mg2?. The formulation of a cleaning detergent must be modified and it is usual to add more surfactants or a huge quantity of sequestrating agents. This supplementary addition can have deleterious effects on the environment and increases the price of the formulation. A surfactant, presenting both detergency capacities in the presence of Ca2? and Ca2? chelating properties,would be of great interest. In this paper, we report on Ca2?extraction with sugar-based chelating surfactants using an experimental device, namely a flotation column, as both chelating properties and foaming properties in the presence of Ca2+ are important in the flotation process as well as in detergency. Among all the sugar-based surfactants tested, a few of them were able to extract calcium and thus demonstrated the expected characteristics.2? or Mg2?. The formulation of a cleaning detergent must be modified and it is usual to add more surfactants or a huge quantity of sequestrating agents. This supplementary addition can have deleterious effects on the environment and increases the price of the formulation. A surfactant, presenting both detergency capacities in the presence of Ca2? and Ca2? chelating properties,would be of great interest. In this paper, we report on Ca2?extraction with sugar-based chelating surfactants using an experimental device, namely a flotation column, as both chelating properties and foaming properties in the presence of Ca2+ are important in the flotation process as well as in detergency. Among all the sugar-based surfactants tested, a few of them were able to extract calcium and thus demonstrated the expected characteristics.