In order to make clear the relation between the fatty acid composition of soaps used in bulk wash liquid and the detergency of foam washing, we used sodium soaps and potasium soaps which composed from saturated fatty acids (C
12-C
18) or unsaturated one (C
18*), searched the foaming property, washed the natural dirt on the collar and the artificial cluster dirt by C type of foam washing machine, and obtained following results.
1) With increasing carbon number of fatty acid soap at 70°C, the foaming power and the foam stability increased, and the blow ratio decreased. Unsaturated C
18*-soaps showed the foaming properties between saturated C
12-soaps and C
14-soaps. These properties are closely related to the viscosity of bulk liquid and the hydrolysis ratio of the soaps.
2) Palmitic acid soaps (C
16) and stealic acid soaps (C
18) showed the best detergency in immersion washing. But in the foam washing, the best detergency of oily soil and protein soil was obtained with mylistic acid soaps (C
14) and palmitic acid soaps, which have high permeability, and the best detergency of particulate soil was obtained with palmitic acid soaps and stealic acid soaps, which create strong and thick foam films.
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