Non-ionic surfactant
Carries no charge, so hard water does not touch it. Usually blended with an anionic rather than used alone.
In detail
A non-ionic surfactant has no electrical charge on its water-loving end. It cleans by the same mechanism as any surfactant — one end of the molecule is at home in water and the other in oil — but because there is no charge, there is nothing for calcium and magnesium to react with, and the class works essentially as well in hard water as in soft. It is generally better on oily and greasy soil than an anionic and less good at suspending particulate, which is why most modern liquid products contain both rather than choosing. It also foams much less, which matters more than it sounds: a machine that relies on mechanical action needs the water to move, and a bowlful of foam cushions it. Declared on a label by class and weight band above 0.2%.
Why
- Non-ionic surfactant is explained by Surfactancy
- Non-ionic surfactant is explained by Water hardness
Sources for this page
Sources
Regulation (EC) No 648/2004 on detergents, Annex VII — labelling and ingredient data sheet
European Parliament and Council, as retained in UK law (legislation.gov.uk), 2004 · Government or regulator
Relied on for: That the class is one of the constituents a detergent label must declare, in weight bands above 0.2%. (states this directly)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — Annex VII section A, the weight-range list and the declare-regardless list. Supports the claim as stated. Enumerates the ingredient-class family completely, and supplies the vocabulary a reader is actually confronted with on the back of a bottle.
Handbook of Detergents (Surfactant Science Series)
CRC Press / Taylor & Francis · Reference work
Relied on for: That non-ionic surfactants are uncharged, are not precipitated by water hardness, and are typically combined with anionic surfactants in formulation. (background and mechanism only)
Verification: the work exists and is described correctly. Nobody has yet read the specific passage.
Last reviewed by a person on .