Oily soil detergency under low interfactial tension condition using methyl ester sulfonate and alcohol ethoxylate

Abstract

The objective of this research was to study the correlation between the phase behavior of microemulsions and the detergency performance of oily soil removal. A mixed surfactant system of alcohol ethoxylate (AE) and methyl ester sulfonate (MES) was selected to form different microemulsions with motor oil. The interfacial tension (IFT) of various microemulsion systems was used to determine a selected formulation that corresponded to the lowest IFT condition. The lowest IFT of the mixed system was 0.0342 m N /m and the selected formulation was 88.23 % AE and 11.77 % MES. For the detergency experiments, the optimum detergency performance was found at 0.3 % active concentration. Three types of fabrics (100% polyester,100% cotton, and a 65/35 polyester/cotton blend) soiled with motor oil were tested with the selected formulation. Among the three fabrics, the oil rem oval of the 100% cotton was the highest and the 100% polyester had the lowest oil rem oval. For any given test fabric, the selected formulation showed a higher oil rem oval than commercial detergent. In addition, the redeposition of the motor oil onto the fabrics was less than 1 % in the three fabrics.