Detergents and surfactants: a brief review

The use of laundry detergents based on synthetic ingredients is not an old innovation. Since ancient times until World War I, people for washing their clothes used soaps that were produced by saponifying fats and oils into fatty acid salts. In 1931, for the first time, Dreft powder introduced to the world as a synthetic detergent in the US. In 1946, Tide came to be known as a new detergent by P&G, armed with the phosphate. In 1988, the same company produced for the first time in history of detergents, liquid detergent with color-safe bleach. For decades, powdered and liquid laundry detergents containing linear alkyl benzene sulfonates (LABS), sodium lauryl ether sulfate (SLES), sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), ether sulfates, and alcohol ethoxylates as surfactants, along with builders, enzymes, polymers, and possibly bleaches as additional active ingredients have been used to meet the household laundry needs. These formulations were designed to deal with different types of dirt and stains depended on water conditions at various countries and cities.1 Recently, significant efforts have been done to develop surfactants to be used in detergent industry. In commercial applications some of the surfactants such as α-sulfomethyl esters and alkyl polyglucosides (APGs) are known as newer materials. Some of the other materials, such as ethoxylated amines, alkanolamides, betaines, alkyldiphenyl, and oxide disulfonates, have been used for many years routinely in other industries. One of the mostly used surfactants which have been used in powdered detergent industry is believed to be linear alkylbenzene sulfonate known as LAS. This surfactant is an inexpensive and accessible ingredient that is effective on dirt but less so on greasy or oily stains. Hence, still, searching for raw materials with low cost, higher yields and most importantly searching for green methodologies in detergent industry is of prime importance.