Tide

Tide

  • Submitted By: tanvi0803
  • Date Submitted: 02/15/2009 6:43 AM
  • Category: English
  • Words: 966
  • Page: 4
  • Views: 1

How many people have gotten a stain on their favorite shirt or pant or any piece of clothing. The first question that usually pops up in their mind is how I can take this stain out? Should I use non oxy-detergent or this new type of detergent called oxy-detergent? Hopefully after your done reading this paper you would know what to do if you are in that situation again.

Tide was the first liquid detergent invented and it was invented 1943. It was invented because most Americans used soap flakes to clean their laundry but it would perform poorly in hard water. Soap flakes leave a ring in the washing machine, dull colors, and turn whites gray. Tide is an example of a liquid detergent. “Tide detergent was the combination of synthetic surfactants and "builders." The builders helped the synthetic surfactants penetrate the clothes more deeply to attack greasy, difficult stains.”

Detergent is used along with water to wash clothes because water alone cannot remove stains in clothing. Detergents molecules have the ability to mold into different forms of matter because they are so long. Detergent molecules try to be asymmetrical. When a molecule is asymmetrical that means that “one end attracts long pieces of dirt while the other end attracts water, which is how detergent lifts dirt from wet clothes.” Detergents contain an ingredient called Surfactants. Surfactants are very important for the removal of stains because it lowers the surface tension of water. By doing this, it allows the surfactants not to stick to itself but to the oil and grease.

Surfactants are long molecules whose electrical charge is unknown. They might or might not have an electrical charge. “Surfactants with uncharged molecules are non-iconic surfactants. Surfactants with positively charged molecules (or ions) are cationic surfactants.” Anionic surfactants are surfactants with negatively charged molecules (or ions). “Surfactants with both positively and negatively charged...

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