Removal of a solid organic soil from a hard surface by glucose-derived surfactants: Effect of surfactant chain length, headgroup polymerisation and anomeric configuration

Asoka Weerawardena, Ben J. Boyd, Calum J. Drummond, D. Neil Furlong

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

27 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The ability of sugar-derived surfactants to remove a solid organic soil from a hard surface has been investigated using a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) technique. A matrix of anomerically pure alkyl glucosides and alkyl maltosides, as well as two polydisperse commercial alkylpolyglucoside (APG) surfactant mixtures, were investigated to study the way in which surfactant structure influences hard soil detergency behaviour. As expected, the removal of the hard soil, tristearin, from the gold surface was poor at surfactant concentrations below the critical micelle concentration (CMC) but rose dramatically at higher concentrations. At high concentrations above the CMC, the amount of hard soil ultimately removed was not dependent on the surfactant structure. In contrast, the kinetics of soil removal was dependent on the headgroup degree of polymerisation (DP), alkyl chain length, and anomeric configuration for the matrix of surfactants studied. Alkyl maltoside surfactants removed the hard soil faster than the corresponding alkyl glucoside; an alkyl chain length of ten carbon atoms provided faster soil removal than the octyl or dodecyl counterpart; and at short chain lengths, the α-anomers remove tristearin faster than the corresponding β-anomer. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)317-328
Number of pages12
JournalColloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects
Volume169
Issue number1-3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2000
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Alkyl glucoside
  • Alkyl maltoside
  • Alkylpolyglucoside
  • Anomers
  • Detergency
  • Glucose-derived surfactants
  • Quartz crystal microbalance
  • Tristearin

Cite this