Water is the most common universal solvent on our planet. Go early any substance, coming into contact with it, undergoes a hydrolysis reaction and decomposes.
However, in some cases, this process should be accelerated without waiting for it to pass at a natural rate. Surfactants are used for this.
What is a surfactant? These are chemical compounds that increase the fluidity of water and improve its ability to wet various physical bodies. The effectiveness of this process is hindered by surface tension - a thin film consisting of liquid molecules that separates it from the surrounding gas environment. This layer is quite strong, it creates a barrier to the penetration of water into those objects that need to be saturated with molecules for some reason.
The main reason that people tend to wet various objects is the desire to clean them from pollution, that is, wash or wash them. Soap is the main and most ancient surfactant with which mankind solves this problem, but the achievements of modern chemistry have demonstrated that such a surfactant is no longer the most effective means. Despite the huge amount of soap produced and consumed, it is rarely used today for washing and washing dishes. Since the late forties of the XX century, new detergents have appeared, possessing truly miraculous power, shown to break the surface tension.
Classification of surfactants according to their chemical composition, molecular structure and nature of the impact includes:
- Nonionic surfactants.
- Amphoteric surfactants.
- Cationic surfactants.
- Anionic surfactants.
For all their practical and economic usefulness, surface-active substances produced by the modern chemical industry in truly titanic volumes pose a certain threat to the ecology of the planet. Although there is a substance that breaks down into carbohydrates after use. We can say that such a surfactant, created on the basis of alkylpolyglucosides, is safe for the environment.
The main share of detergents and washing powders produced is resistant to decomposition and retain their properties for a long period. Getting into water bodies and the oceans, over time, they can so strongly affect the properties of the main fluid of our planet that it will become life threatening. Already today (due to the abundance of spent detergents) hard-to-remove particles of heavy metals that adversely affect the body get into the water, including drinking water. These harmful inclusions would not be able to dissolve so actively in water, penetrating into it from the soil, if surfactants in threatening concentrations were not present in it.
It would seem, what is the problem? The production of all detergents should simply be prohibited, except for those based on safe alkyl polyglucosides. But not so simple. The fact is that such a surfactant is too expensive, and not everyone can afford the detergents containing it. Manufacturers and consumers rarely think about the consequences of rash chemicalization.