Laundry Detergents With An On/Off Switch

Описание: Laundry Detergents With An On/Off Switch
In a report to the 234th national meeting of the American Chemical Society, scientists in Australia described development of a new detergent with a wide range of potential applications — from a laundry detergent that hardly needs a rinse cycle to a non-irritating eye rinse to increasing the amount of oil that companies can extract from a well.
Here is how Annette Dexter, Ph.D., of the University of Queensland described the biological detergent or surfactant, called a Pepfactant ®. "Dexter is a biochemist and co-inventor of the material along with colleague Anton Middelberg, a chemical engineer:
"One of the possible applications that we are aware of is a surfactant that would switch between the wash cycle and rinse cycle during clothes washing, which would mean you could remove visible suds without having to use as large a quantity of water."
IN THE VIDEO:
The tube on the left shows an emulsion, a combination of oil and water. The tube on the right shows the rapid separation of the emulsion into oil and water after addition of the Pepfactant ®.
(Video Courtesy of Annette Dexter, The University of Queensland)