Zeolite
The phosphate replacement. A crystalline mineral that traps hardness ions in its own structure rather than dissolving them away.
In detail
A zeolite is a crystalline aluminosilicate with a rigid, regular framework full of cavities. In a detergent it works as a BUILDER: calcium and magnesium ions from hard water exchange into the framework and are held there, so they are no longer free to precipitate the surfactant. It is the reason powder detergents changed in the late twentieth century. Phosphate builders did the same job in solution and did it very well, and their contribution to nutrient enrichment of rivers and lakes led to restriction and replacement. Zeolite is insoluble, which is a virtue environmentally and a compromise in the wash: it is a fine white solid that must be kept suspended and rinsed out, and it does nothing for the small amount of soil that a soluble builder would have helped disperse. Declared on a label by class and weight band above 0.2%.
Why
- Zeolite is explained by Builders and water softening
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 zeolites act as builders by ion exchange, sequestering calcium and magnesium, and that they replaced soluble phosphate builders in detergent 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 .