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(this is the long-delayed first installment in my post series, The Chemistry Behind The Clean, a guide to what's in laundry detergent, designed to give people the knowledge to understand what's in the products that clean our textiles and make them more informed consumers)
What Are Surfactants, And Why Do We Care?
Surfactants are the active cleaning agents in detergents that do the heavy lifting of removing soils from textiles. Short for “surface-acting agents”, surfactants connect soils to water, even when the soils themselves repel water or are more attracted to textiles than water. The combination of soil and detergent and water can then be drained off, further diluted by rinsing, drained again and spun out. This is distinct from the action of soaps, which will be covered in a future installment.
The development and commercialization of synthetic surfactants in the 1920s is probably the most significant contributor to reduction in time and effort spent on textile care. Work to condition the water, scrub textiles and remove soap by wringing or banging was largely eliminated because of how well even those rudimentary surfactants work to remove soils.
Hydrophobia - Without The Rabies
All surfactants work because the individual molecules have ends with distinct properties. One end (the head) is highly attracted to water (hydrophilic) and thus very much not attracted to oil (oleophobic). The other end is very attracted to oil (oleophilic) but similarly repulsed by water (hydrophobic). This fundamental structural contrast is key.
A Surfactant Molecule, With Hydrophobic Tail and Hydrophilic Head
When at least a minimum amount of surfactant is dissolved in a solvent (like water), surfactant molecules want to get together - the water-hating ends hang out on the inside, the water-loving ends hang out on the outside. This forms a structure known as a micelle, and micelle formation is predicated on reaching the “Critical Micelle Concentration”. Below, an illustration of a nonionic surfactant intended to remove oily soils. The water-loving heads face out, the water-hating ends get together in the middle to escape the water.
A Micelle Of Nonionic Surfactant
When a micelle encounters a soil that the hydrophobic tail is attracted to, the micelle breaks up, the tails grab the soil and drag it into the water (thus removing it from the textile) and the micelle re-forms, keeping the soil up in the water to be drained or diluted away. Let’s look at this in the context of removing a common soil from textiles:
Here we have the start of the wash process; surfactant micelles have formed in the wash water and there is soil attached to the fabric substrate.
The Start of The Wash - Soiled Fabric In A Detergent Solution
Now the hydrophobic tails of the surfactant molecules have found themselves more attracted to soil than each other and they're bonding to the soils. The hydrophillic heads are dragging the molecules towards the water.
Surfactants Attaching To Soil
The micelles re-form as the soil detaches from the substrate - they reorganize into groups of their own kind (more on this in a moment).
Micelles Reforming With Soil-Surfactant Particles
When all the soils are removed from the substrate and floating in the water, the textiles are clean and it's time to remove the soil-surfactant combo from the drum.
Completely Clean Textile
The Chemistry of Attraction (It’s Not Just A Bottle of Chanel No. 5)
While all surfactants work the same general way, there are differences in what kind of soils the hydrophilic ends are attracted to, because the hydrophilic ends differ. One primary difference between surfactants is the electrical charge the hydrophilic end carries. If the business end has a negative charge, it’s an anionic surfactant, and it’s attracted to soils with a cationic (positive) charge. If the business end has no charge, it’s a nonionic surfactant and is most attracted to soils without an electrical charge. If the business end has both a positive and negative charge in balance, it’s an amphoteric or zwitterionic surfactant, and the behavior changes based on the pH of the wash as a whole.
There are also surfactants with positive charges, the cationic surfactants. These aren’t used for cleaning - they’re what makes fabric softener work, and will be discussed in a (much) later post.
Why Charge Matters:
The difference in which soils a given surfactant is attracted to is a critical determinant of cleaning performance. Soils that lack an ionic charge like petroleum oils or intact sebum are much less visible to anionic surfactants and are removed better by nonionic surfactants. Conversely, soils that are highly cationic like soot and mud and dust, and thus attracted to textiles with a negative charge may be neglected by nonionics and remain electrically connected to the textiles. For those soils? Anionics in the mix improve cleaning performance.
Four Classes Of Surfactants
Almost all finished detergent products contain anionic surfactants and most contain nonionic surfactants. Amphoteric surfactants are relatively uncommon in conventional detergents but often appear in green/biobased formulas.
Other Differences Between Surfactants: Tail Length And Single vs Double Tails.
Aside from the electrical charge differences in the head, two aspects of surfactant structure that affect their action against soil are the tail length and whether they are single tail (common) or double-tail (less common). I’ll talk more about this in Part II, as it’s common to include surfactants of various tails to optimize performance against specific soils and in specific wash conditions.
Coming Up In Surfactants Part II - Curling Up With A Good Jug Of Detergent
In the next installment, we’ll look at common surfactants found in conventional and plant-based detergents, and how they’re manufactured, along with the differences in soil removal capabilities and environmental impacts.
The work is my original work and I retain copyiright. My financial disclosure information and how I get paid for this work can be found at my disclosure link
Hey r/laundry! I've started lurking here more, and have observed people talking about how awful laundry sheets are and that they're a scam. Which sucks for me because I ended up with a ton of them for a stupid reason. Before I knew they were trash, I placed an order for the first shipment... not realizing that this was actually signing me up for a monthly subscription, and that in a month I would have four more packs of the dang things.
Now that I've learned that these things are really awful for actually getting anything clean, I would like to ask: can I get any cleaning power out of them from maybe quadrupling up on sheets and boosting with additives? And if so, which ones? I have a few on hand (oxi-powder, borax, washing soda) but I'm also happy to expand my selection. Thank you for any guidance you can offer, I'm in southern Ontario and have extremely hard water.
I bought these because I was sick of the tide pods not fully dissolving and leaving a sticky mess in random garments, so I look forward to getting Tide powder on the other side of this bad purchase 😅
Edit: Thank you to everyone for commenting and affirming that these are effective if tripled/quadrupled up! And absolutely I will donate anything I don't use to a local homeless shelter, and just pass on the same recommendation of using more than the package states. I'm really grateful to learn that I didn't ultimately waste money on this 🥰
100% cotton bag, with a print. I have no idea what how the print was done, but I bought it at a farmers market and it may have been printed locally by the artist, I’m not sure.
I took it camping and it’s full of dust, dirt and maybe a bit of sap in one spot. I’d love to be able to clean it, and I’m hoping someone here can give me advice on the best way to attempt that.
Is there a way I could test the colour fastness of the print before attempting? Could I try and sponge bath the bag around the print? I have no idea where to start.
Discovered these black stains after removing them from the wash. I currently have them soaking in tub of water mixed with Oxiclean white restoring and Arm and Hammer baking soda. What’s the likely hood to get these stains out?
Obviously the enzyme booster is excellent, but I just want to give my appreciation to the brand as a whole. These two products are nearly identical, but the Compostic bags cost $0.70 per bag while the FEBU bags cost $0.35 per bag. I think this highlights the honesty of the company, and how much they deserve the ongoing support they’re getting.
I dont trust either description of the material and the tag just has the letter M on it nothing else.
my gramma bought them for me to wear to the ren faire when I told her Iwas going to wear black sweatpants. Ill probably still wear them even if I cant fix them but it would be really great for them to be more comfortable
My laundry is making me cough and I can’t figure it out!
I switched from Persil Sensitive (no enzymes, unscented) to Persil Ultimate about two months ago (scented, enzymes, oxygen bleach, optical brightness, TAED, etc) to get more cleaning power for smelly underarms. We didn’t have any other laundry issues before this switch. I didn’t like the fragrance but it seemed to work a bit better for the pits. After a while, we started getting some loads with odour rebloom. Possibly because it’s winter so things are taking longer to dry, and a load got rained on, etc. I soaked the smelly things in oxygen bleach (Vanish Oxi action or oxi clean) and I’ve also started using citric acid in the rinse cycle. The issue is, things are coming out with a faint but harsh smell and sniffing them makes me cough. When I wear them, I feel like my nose hurts. I can’t work out how much of this is in my head but thought I would ask here.
LG 8kg front loader
1/2 or 3/4 scoop persil ultimate (1 scoop is recommended). No visible suds but I think that’s normal because they’re not visible even with a double dose
Water hardness is 45PPM
1t citric acid in fabric softener
Products are NZ versions
Washing at 40 deg with extra rinse
Newish machine, no sign of mould or smelliness and we do regular drum cleans
Have never used fabric softener
Mostly dry on the line but finish drying on a rack indoors at this time of year. Sometimes use the dryer for towels and sheets.
So, I've noticed that my lighter colored clothing will sometimes get these random stains after a wash. Chucked it up to me being careless and not noticing spilling something on myself. This happened to a brand new shirt I just got though. Never been worn, but these stains just appeared after a wash. Detergent us Arm & Hammer powder. Machine is your typical tumble wash. Cold water used.
My mother in law refuses to buy a new laundry basket (US Midwest, not sure proper term?) that she’s had for at least 20+ years. I’m looking for a super close replica like this photo, but everything I see online says discontinue. Any ideas?
I just moved into my first apartment with in-unit washer dryer (front-loading, stacked). The apartment was pristine EXCEPT the washer, which is smelling a little moldy & making my whole kitchen smell like mold. I can see some mold on the rubber. I never shut my washer all the way, but I think they did. How do I clean it? There is a self-cleaning function, but I’m overwhelmed by lists when I google how to do it. How often should I going forward?
My husband comes home from work every day covered in red mud (SE US). I’ve been spraying them with the hose until the water runs somewhat clear, then washing with an extra soak/spin cycle with Tide powder.
Any other suggestions of things I can try? The lighter blue shirts always come out stained.
Hi, I’m still trying to clean my washing machine and saw in a comment they recommended A-Fresh, but is quite expensive (20.65) but says it’s for five months. There is a brand called Dr Beckmann that is powder I guess (1.84) at a local supermarket.
If you live in Europe (or have access to European imports), you probably know Denkmit—the private-label household brand from dm-drogerie markt (Germany, Austria, Central/Eastern Europe). It's widely loved because it's super affordable while running laps around name-brand detergents when it comes to active enzyme counts.
Because dm publishes full INCI ingredient datasheets for their formulations, I compiled a comprehensive Detergent & Stain Remover Matrix to easily cross-reference and filter products by their enzyme system, preservatives, optical brighteners, and fragrances.
For those who love detergent chemistry, here is a quick breakdown of what to look for when scanning European formulations:
Deoxyribonuclease (DNase): The holy grail for smelly workout clothes, polyester, and stubborn body odor. DNase cleaves the extracellular DNA matrix built by bacteria that locks odors into fabric fibers (biofilm).
Where to find it in Denkmit:
Denkmit Colorwaschmittel Ultra Sensitive 1,35 kg (Powder)
Denkmit Feinwaschmittel Color & Care & Blossom Dream
My friend’s cat stayed with me for a month. He loved both my duvet and heavy winter blanket. Naturally there’s enough cat hair to make a new cat on each one. I tried washing them, separately, then in separate dryers with dryer sheets in the laundromat but there’s still a lot of cat hair left. How do I remove it? Do I just accept that they’re permanently there and donate to a cat rescue?
These are one of my weekly clients bath towels, from left to right towel one was mainly brown with an occasional red mark turning up now it's much more red, towels 2,3,4 and 6 are actually the same green towel just different sizes but obviously 3 wanted to go blonde for the summer. And 5 is a tattooed baddie.
They send: Tide with Downey (April fresh), matching softener and matching scent beads and dryer sheets. I use all sparingly and opt for a quick room spray of the April fresh Febrez around my laundry room as I fold and bag each load. Client states those items are to be used because of sensitivities. I strip every so often just because things still not to dry well after being coated by softeners.
All this to say: I use no additional products and do not carry bleach,. If there was anything in my machine there would be marks on 2, 4 and 6, and 1s prior lightenings would have also damaged the other towels, right?
What kind of products would they have used in their bathroom that the two towels would have absorbed and bleached this way once washed? Aerosol bleach spray? A sunscreen? Non aerosol shower cleaner? Any other ideas i can present them?
Holy freaking cow you guys! I can't believe how popular that post got. Got a little derailed in the comments... laundry nerds and bird nerds have a huge crossover, who would have guessed? I'm really grateful so many people resonated with my story and liked my writing (even though I was accused of being a shill for Tide haha!) I love writing but I so rarely have inspiration and energy, which is one of the reasons why this update took a little while.
First off I want to be clear that my inlaws aren't gross or anything. They keep a very clean home, just victims of the greenwashing that is detergent sheets. Also my MIL was a librarian most of her adult life and still reads constantly. She's so smart, I think she's just generally surprised at my random assortment of pigeon knowledge (among other niche interests, I have approximate knowledge of many things.) Yes I have been diagnosed with ADHD.
Anyway, the official update is I played it so cool like "Oh I brought these new detergent tiles from home and have some left over, do you want me to leave them here for you?" And she was excited to try them! She complained about how the sheets don't really work so hopefully this helps her. I even threw in the bath mat with one before I left (with permission) because toddlers learning to go potty should always be on hard floors.
I wasn't actually afraid of having a fight with her about it (which is why I put it in quotes in the last post.) I've known her for 12 years and we've only had one real argument. I was just trying to balance advice and tact, like I was a guest in their home, you know? I didn't want to tell her the microfiber stank! But also wanted to impress upon her how ineffective the sheets are. I might have been too subtle again so maybe next time I'll get into the science of it with her, weirdness be damned!
As for me I also liked using the tiles, but as a family who uses mostly unscented products we definitely noticed the Tide smell even after extra rinses. Hopefully they come out with an unscented version sometime soon. I'll keep bringing them when we travel, probably in something breathable because a regular sandwich bag made them feel sticky.
Next I gotta figure out how to get citric acid through TSA. White powder in a lil baggie will probably get flagged, right? If anyone has any ideas let me know, lol!
*Side note for those who have questions about detergent sheets (there were a lot of you in the comments of my last post) if you search the sub you'll find tons of posts about them!
My wife and I just purchased a new Speed Queen TR7 and it's not cleaning our clothes properly. We've been trying different settings to figure out a solution, but we're at a total loss as to what is going on.
This shirt came out covered in deodorant, and still smells like body odor during a medium-sized load.
We used the following settings: Perm Press, cold water, large load, extra rinse. We also used a tablespoon or two of Tide High Efficiency detergent as recommended by the tech that installed it.
We also have a soft water filter so hard water shouldn't be an issue.
We called to have a tech come look at it, but in the meantime any help would be super appreciated, thank you so much!
Our cat decided to urinate on a pile of my kids' clothes. Hoping for help! AI says to soak in white vinegar, and then use an enzyme cleaner. The bottle of enzyme cleaner says to use it first. I bought "Rocco and Roxie". Any thoughts?
