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What are Nonionic Surfactants?

April 26, 2017clean room clean rooms cleanroom cleanrooms disk drive HEPA hepa filtration lifescience nonionic surfactants

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What are Nonionic Surfactants?

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Nonionic surfactants have no ions. These chemicals derive their polarity from having an oxygen-rich portion of the molecule at one end and a large organic molecule at the other end. The oxygen component is usually derived from short polymers of ethylene oxide or propylene oxide. As in water, the oxygen provides a dense electron-rich atom that gives the entire molecule a partial net-negative charge that makes the whole molecule polar and able to participate in hydrogen bonding with water. Examples of nonionic surfactants are alcohol ethoxylates, nonylphenoxy polyethylenoxy alcohols, and ethylene oxide/propylene oxide block copolymers.4 How Much Is Enough? While surfactant concentrations are well below 10% for most aqueous cleaners as shipped, they constitute the chief active ingredients of the detergent industry and are selected and/or formulated for the final products targeted application and markets. The major chemical manufacturers are hesitant about the release of specific informati