The influence of sodium-polyacrilic macromolecular chain length to the powder detergents secondary washing performances

Abstract

In order to investigate the influence of sodium-polyacrylate polymer as a co-builder in addition to the carbonate/zeolite builders in detergent builder system, secondary washing performances of powder laundry detergent containing equal percentage of sodium polyacrylate with the different weight average molar mass, Mw, have been examined. The value of the degree of whiteness, elongation at break, and total residue content are the most important secondary washing performances that significantly depend on sodium polyacrylates efficiency used as crystal inhibitors, stabilizers for suspended soil, and agents for soil redisposition prevention on fabric surface. The values of the whiteness and elongation at break for cotton fabrics increase with the increase of average weight molecular mass, Mw, up to the value of 70000 g/mol, while in the case of further increase of weight average molar mass up to the 250000 g/mol value of these characteristics begin to decline. The values of the total residue content after combustion indicate an increase in its content with the increase of weight average molar mass of 3000 to 70000 g/mol, while the highest value has been reached in the sample of detergent containing sodiumpolyacrilic with the weight average molar mass of 250000 g/mol. All detergent samples show no significant dependence of the secondary washing characteristics on the number of washing cycles.

Keywords

• sodium polyacrylate
• polymer
• detergents
• carbonate/zeolite builders
• secondary washing performances
• degree of whiteness
• elongation at break
• residue content after combustion