Solvents and polymers

In detail

Solvents work on the principle that like dissolves like: an organic solvent lifts an oily, organic soil because the two are chemically compatible. The difficulty is that a great many surfaces in a modern home are also organic polymers — acrylic baths, laminate wear layers, the resin binding an engineered stone worktop, paint and lacquer films, the latex bonding a carpet's backings, and the coatings on plastics and screens. A solvent has no way of distinguishing the polymer it was meant to remove from the polymer it is standing on, so the same property that makes it effective makes it destructive a few centimetres away. This is why the restriction appears in almost every care sheet with no mechanism attached — the acrylic bath, the quartz worktop, the mirror backing, the plated tap. The carpet case is the most instructive because the damage is invisible: solvent reaching the backing damages the latex holding the two backings together, a structural failure under a surface that still looks clean. Contact time and quantity matter more here than concentration, which is why solvent goes onto a cloth and never onto the surface.

Why

• Finished leather is explained by Solvents and polymers

  The guide's own reason for its prohibition list: modern leather finishes are WATER-BASED, and the products it excludes attack the finish rather than the hide.

• Expanded polystyrene (helmet foam) is explained by Solvents and polymers
• White spirit is explained by Solvents and polymers
• Acetone is explained by Solvents and polymers
• Solvent treatment is explained by Solvents and polymers
• Nail varnish is explained by Solvents and polymers
• Hairspray residue is explained by Solvents and polymers
• Oil-based paint is explained by Solvents and polymers
• Powder-coated aluminium is explained by Solvents and polymers
• Household plastics is explained by Solvents and polymers
• Natural rubber is explained by Solvents and polymers
• Lacquered metal is explained by Solvents and polymers