Aromatic surfactants in laundry detergents and hard-surface cleaners: Linear alkylbenzenesulphonates and alkylphenol polyethoxylates

Abstract

Linear alkylbenzenesulphonates (LAS) and alkylphenol polyethoxylates (APEO) were determined in granular laundry detergents and liquid hard-surface cleaners commercially available in Switzerland. Quantitative measurements were performed by reversed- and normal-phase high-performance liquid chromatography. The distributions of homologous LAS and of the phenyl positional isomers within each homologue are presented together with the distribution of oligomeric APEO. Levels of LAS and APEO were: 1.5 to 12 % and 0.5 to 6% respectively, in the laundary detergents and 2.8 to 3.6 % and 7.0 to 25.1% in the hard-surface cleaners. The most abundant components of LAS contained aliphatic chains with eleven and twelve carbon atoms. The distributions of APEO oligomers centered around compounds with eight or nine ethoxy units.