What are surfactants and how do they affect the environment?

Water is the most common universal solvent on our planet. Early, go late any substance, entering into contact with it, undergoes a hydrolysis reaction and decomposes.

However, in some cases this process should be accelerated, without waiting for it to pass at a natural speed. For this, surfactants are used.

What is surfactant? These are chemical compounds that increase the fluidity of water and improve its ability to wet various physical bodies. The effectiveness of this process is hampered by surface tension - a thin film consisting of liquid molecules that separates it from the surrounding gaseous medium. This layer is quite strong, it creates a barrier for the penetration of water into those objects that need to be saturated with molecules for some reason.

The main reason people are striving forwet various objects - is the desire to clean them from contamination, that is, to wash or wash. Soap is the main and oldest surface-active substance with which mankind solves this problem, but the achievements of modern chemistry have demonstrated that such a surfactant is no longer the most effective means. Despite the huge amount of soap produced and consumed, it is rarely used today for washing and washing dishes. Since the late 40s of the 20th century, new detergents have appeared, possessing a truly miraculous force, manifested for the destruction of surface tension.

The classification of surfactants by their chemical composition, molecular structure and nature of the impact includes:

- Nonionic surfactants.

Amphoteric surfactants.

Cationic surfactants.

Anionic surfactants.

For all its practical and economicthe usefulness of surface active substances, developed by the modern chemical industry in truly titanic volumes, pose a certain threat to the ecology of the planet. Although there is a substance that is split into carbohydrates after use. It can be said that such a surfactant, created on the basis of alkyl polyglucosides, is safe for the environment.

The major share of the detergents produced andwashing powders are resistant to decomposition and retain their properties for a long period. Getting into the water bodies and the world ocean, they eventually can so strongly affect the properties of the main fluid of our planet, that it will become life-threatening. Already today (because of the abundance of used detergents), hard-to-remove particles of heavy metals that are detrimental to the body fall into the water, including drinking water. These harmful inclusions could not so actively dissolve in water, penetrating into it from the soil, if it did not contain surfactants in menacing concentrations.

It would seem, what's the problem? It should simply prohibit the production of all detergents, except those based on safe alkyl polyglucosides. But not everything is so simple. The fact is that such a surfactant is too expensive, and detergents containing it are far from affordable for everyone. The fact that the consequences of ill-considered chemicals can be catastrophic, producers and consumers are rarely thought of.