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Calcium Chelating Sugar-Based Surfactants for Hard-Water Detergency

  • Original Article
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Journal of Surfactants and Detergents

Abstract

Hard water can decrease the detergency efficiency of surfactants due to a significant concentration of divalent cations as Ca2+ or Mg2+. The formulation of a cleaning detergent must be modified and it is usual to add more surfactants or a huge quantity of sequestrating agents. This supplementary addition can have deleterious effects on the environment and increases the price of the formulation. A surfactant, presenting both detergency capacities in the presence of Ca2+ and Ca2+ chelating properties, would be of great interest. In this paper, we report on Ca2+ extraction with sugar-based chelating surfactants using an experimental device, namely a flotation column, as both chelating properties and foaming properties in the presence of Ca2+ are important in the flotation process as well as in detergency. Among all the sugar-based surfactants tested, a few of them were able to extract calcium and thus demonstrated the expected characteristics.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are indebted to DGA (fellowship to N. F.), Universidad de Buenos Aires, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and Ministère délégué à l’Enseignement Supérieur et à la Recherche for financial support. This work was also supported by a Binational Cooperation France-Argentina, CNRS and Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire des Glucides UMR CNRS 6219, Université de Picardie Jules Verne, 33 Rue Saint-Leu, 80039, Amiens, France

    Nadège Ferlin, José Kovensky & Eric Grand

  2. Centro de Estudios Transdisciplinarios del Agua (CETA), Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Chorroarín 280, C1427CWO, Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Diego Grassi, Carlos Ojeda, Mariano J. L. Castro & Alicia Fernández-Cirelli

  3. División de Investigación y Desarrollo, Jenk S.A., Alvarez Thomas 228, C1427CCP, Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Diego Grassi

Authors
  1. Nadège Ferlin
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  2. Diego Grassi
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  3. Carlos Ojeda
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  4. Mariano J. L. Castro
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  5. Alicia Fernández-Cirelli
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  6. José Kovensky
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  7. Eric Grand
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Alicia Fernández-Cirelli, José Kovensky or Eric Grand.

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Ferlin, N., Grassi, D., Ojeda, C. et al. Calcium Chelating Sugar-Based Surfactants for Hard-Water Detergency. J Surfact Deterg 15, 259–264 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11743-011-1310-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11743-011-1310-3

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