Amphoteric Surfactant HJ40: Balancing Mildness and Performance in Hard Water, High-Alkali and High-Salt Systems — Released by Qixuan Chemical

For decades of surfactant R&D and application, formulators are frequently confronted with a long-standing dilemma: must cleaning power and mildness always be mutually exclusive?

In personal care formulations, this trade-off directly translates to end-user sensory experience. In industrial formulations, however, it determines production cost, rework rate and customer complaints. For cleaning agents intended to function under high-alkali and high-electrolyte loading, formulators tend to rely heavily on anionic surfactants. In oilfield applications, formation water may carry tens of thousands of mg/L total dissolved solids, causing conventional surfactants to precipitate instantly. For pesticide aerial application and asphalt emulsification, compatibility with cationic components becomes a prerequisite, while most common anionic surfactants will precipitate immediately once mixed with cationic species.

Against such challenging formulation scenarios, Shanghai Qixuan Chemical Technology Co., Ltd. officially launches HJ40 (Sodium capryliminodipropionate, CAS No. 94441-92-6, 40% active content).

HJ40 features a straightforward molecular architecture: a linear n-octyl (C8) alkyl group attached to a tertiary amine nitrogen, which is further substituted with two propionate side chains neutralized as sodium carboxylate salts. This unique structure delivers three core advantages.

• ✔ 1. Excellent Tolerance to Hard Water and Electrolytes: HJ40 resists precipitation and soap scum formation in water hardness above 20 °H. Permits high loading of sodium carbonate, sodium metasilicate, EDTA-4Na without phase separation.
• ✔ 2. Compatibility with Cationic Systems: Most distinctive edge. Can be co-formulated with quaternary ammonium biocides, cationic softeners, and amine-based emulsifiers without insoluble complex formation.
• ✔ 3. Mildness Comparable to Amino-Acid Surfactants and APGs: Demonstrates markedly lower defatting potential than AES or LAS. Critical for operator skin safety in manual cleaning.
• ✔ 4. Broad pH Stability Window: Chemically stable from acidic descaling environments up to highly alkaline degreasing baths above pH 12.
• ✔ 5. Favourable Biodegradability and Low Aquatic Toxicity: Linear C8 aliphatic structure with no branched chains or alkylphenol ethoxylates, ensuring predictable environmental fate.

• Recommended Dosage: 3%–10% (as supplied) as a primary surfactant; 1%–5% as a compatibility additive.
• Feeding Protocol: Fully water-soluble; add directly to aqueous phase. Pre-dilute when mixing with concentrated alkali to avoid gel-phase formation.
• Compatible Co-Components: Stable with LAS, AES, AEO series, APGs, and quaternary ammonium salts.
• Notes: At pH < 2, the molecule shifts toward cationic character, affecting foaming behaviour.

HJ40 is supplied as a 40% aqueous solution (colourless to pale yellow transparent liquid). Packaging options include 25 kg / 50 kg plastic drums and 200 kg drums / 1000 kg IBC totes.

Our application laboratory can conduct compatibility testing tailored to your target system: alkaline degreasing, high-salinity oilfield fluid, water-based agrochemicals, emulsified asphalt or mineral flotation.

Amphoteric surfactants were once considered niche auxiliary additives. Today, rising requirements for mildness and electrolyte resistance have elevated them into structural components. HJ40 achieves a harmonious combination of mildness, salt tolerance, and broad formulation compatibility.