Structure and Function of Microemulsions in Relation to Oily Soil Removal

Abstract

Washing can be defined as the removal of unnecessary substances, namely soils, from a substrate surface. The removal processes of the soils by aqueous media including surfactants, especially in the system of the oily soils and the hard surfaces, are known to proceed through rolling-up, solubilization, and emulsification. In actual fact, they are entangled phenomena and not yet exactly understood. Although colloid chemical factors shown above depend mainly on the structural feature of the surfactant molecules, it is also important to utilize the characteristic feature of the assembled structures of surfactants in solutions. The structural effects of microemulsions on the removal of the oily soils will be demonstrated in this paper.