[danago]

Hey. Im a first year engineering student, and currently working on a design project. Part of the project requires me to investigate the effect of certain water contaminants on the effectiveness of clothes washing detergents. I am dealing mainly with water sources in Cambodia, so i am looking at things such as magnesium, arsenic, E coli etc.

I did highschool chemistry so have a basic understanding of soaps and detergents, but i will need to do a bit more reading. Does anyone have any suggestions for sources which may have information about the effect of certain chemicals on the effectiveness of detergents?

Thanks in advance,
Dan.

PS. Just found out about this forum, looks great!

[enahs]

http://chemistry.about.com/od/howthingswork/f/detergentfaq.htm
http://www.cleaning101.com/sdalatest/html/soapchemistry1.htm

[danago]

Thanks for those links, but do you know of anywhere i can read about other water conditions? I know that the hardness of water will reduce the effectiveness of soaps due to the scum that precipitates, but what about things such as turbidity, bacteria in the water etc?

Thanks again for the reply,
Dan.

[P]

The reason Hard water doesn't lather as much as soft is because of all the ions in it.  The surfactant molecules will be attracted to the ions and form micelles arround them - which is effectively the same as they would arround dirt.