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Cleaning products play an essential role in daily life. They can remove dirt and stains from our clothes, dried on food from our dishes, and even germs from our hands! Let’s learn more about the chemistry that makes this happen.
What Is Cleaning?
Cleaning is the process of taking something dirty—like your kitchen counter—and removing dirt, grease, and grime found on it. When we clean, we leave things better than they were when we found them. Cleaning helps…
If you or your child have allergies or asthma, you already know that many things can bring on, or "trigger," an asthma flare or episode. Some things that trigger asthma attacks are called allergens. Some people get symptoms from only one allergen - like dust mites. For other people, more than one kind of allergen can trigger an episode.
Tobacco smoke is an asthma trigger. Avoid smoking in a home where a person with asthma lives.
The…
What is soap and how does it work?
The sudsy stuff we use every day of our lives is a mystery to most of us. But behind our cleaning products is an array of scientific data and information. This science and chemistry helps to ensure our products work and are safe for you and your family to use. The resources below will walk through what it means to be clean and how the cleaning process works. For more information and activities, we encourage you to check out ExplorationClean.…
No matter the type of product you are using (soap or detergent), good cleaning takes a lot of energy. Three different kinds to be exact:
Chemical energy, provided by the soap or detergent
Mechanical energy, provided by a machine or by hand
Thermal energy, provided by heating water Let’s look at how all these elements work together.
Assume we have a great, big, oily, greasy stain on one of our favorite shirts. Water alone is not enough to remove the stain and get our shirt clean. That…
Did you know that there are different levels of cleaning? Not just routine cleaning versus the less frequent deep cleaning that often gets done in the spring, but different levels within routine cleaning that you may choose depending on the needs of your family and friends or if someone in the home is sick. Learn the Levels of Clean and use them, along with the Levels of Laundry, to make the best cleaning choices for the health and well-being of you and your loved ones.Always remember to read…
The ingredients in your cleaning products fall into several different categories, added to provide different characteristics and cleaning functions. Each product formula is a careful balance of various ingredients that will work best for what you are trying to clean.For more information about the specific ingredients in a cleaning product, visit the manufacturer's website or look for the product in SmartLabel…
What Are Laundry Pods and Dishwasher Pods?Laundry pods and dishwasher pods (also known as liquid detergent packets, packs, tabs or capsules) are a breakthrough in effective, easy cleaning. Backed by decades of scientific research and cutting-edge technology, these all-in-one pods contain a precise combination of key cleaning ingredients to deliver an effortless, reliable wash to your clothing or dishes, every time. …
PVA stands for Polyvinyl Alcohol. It is an ingredient used in many products, including medication and cleaning products. Liquid Laundry Packets (LLPs) and dishwasher packets use PVA to hold in concentrated laundry detergent liquid and be flexible and water resistant when packaged. Then, the film then becomes soluble in washing and biodegrades when it goes down the drain.
PVA Biodegradability
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Revolutionizing Cleaning with Precision and Convenience
Unit dose detergents have transformed the way we approach laundry and dishwashing, offering a precise, hassle-free solution that millions of consumers now rely on. These pre-measured formats—commonly known as pods, packs, tabs, sheets, or tiles—streamline the cleaning process and represent the culmination of decades of scientific and…
Surfactants (yellow) cause water to lose surface tension, which is what keeps water separate from other materials
Have you ever seen a bead of water sitting on a surface? This is because water has a property called surface tension. This tension causes water to form a bead on the surface of things like glass or fabric. You can see surface tension at work by placing a drop of water onto a counter top. The drop will hold its shape and will not spread.
In order to clean the dirt on our …