(8e) Detergency Mechanisms of Naturally Occurring Fatty Acids from Cellulose Substrates – Experimental and Simulation Correlation

Textile surfaces are exposed to environmental and human contamination. These contaminants adhere onto the surface through physiochemical forces. Aqueous detergency process involves usage of water and detergents to remove these contaminants from the cellulose surface. Significant decrease in water volume and temperature in today’s high efficiency laundry process has substantially altered the driving forces in a laundry process.

This study focuses on estimating in-situ the soil removal process of artificial body soil in a bench-top laundering process. The kinetics of soil removal is studied as a function of temperature, wash liquor flow rates, and detergency relevant anionic and nonionic surfactant types and amounts. Multiscale simulation is performed on the same system to better understand the fundamental colloidal mechanisms of soil removal. The improved fundamental understanding of soil removal gained from this study is expected to be a key contributor towards designing predictive techniques for further reducing water and energy usage in high efficiency laundry systems.