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surface-active_agent
has definitions from the field of chemistry
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[ noun ] (chemistry) a substance capable of reducing the surface tension of a liquid in which it is dissolved
Synonyms Used in print (Jay C. Harris and John R. Van Wazer, "Detergent...)As_is the case with the surface-active_agent , the requirements for builders to be used in detergent compositions for washing textiles are also high . Indeed , when the proper inorganic constituents are employed , practically any wetting or surface-active_agent will do a reasonably good job when present in sufficient amount in a hard surface cleaning formulation . In an essentially static system , an oil cannot be replaced by water on a surface unless the interfacial_tensions of the water phase are reduced by a surface-active_agent . Whereas the usual organic surface-active_agent is strongly sorbed at oil-water_interfaces , the highly charged ions are most strongly sorbed at interfaces between water and insoluble materials exhibiting an ionic structure ( see Table 26 - 2 on p. 1678 ) . Thus , for aqueous media , we can think_of the idealized organic active as an oleophilic or hydrophobic surface-active_agent , and of an idealized builder as a oleophobic or hydrophilic surface-active_agent . Related terms |
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