Investigation of Physico-Chemical Interactions between Anionic and Non-Ionic Surfactants

I n this study, behavior of an aqueous binary surfactant mixture composed ofanionic surfactants (linear alkylbenzene sulfonate-labs,and sodium laurylsulfate- sls applied in detergents), and non-ionic surfactants (ethoxylated fattyalcohols with 2 and 7 moles of ethylene oxide) has been investigated . the effectof adding non-ionic surfactant to labs or sls on water hardness sensitivity, anddetergency performance was studied. results indicate that the addition of low levelsof non-ionic surfactant causes the formation of mixed micelle system containingpredominantly non-ionic surfactant molecules. this system improves water hardnesssensitivity and cleaning performance of labs, and sls which in turn improvesperformance of laundry detergent in hard water conditions