Industrial cleaning in the true sense has a history of only several decades, yet its emergence has brought tremendous economic and social benefits to industrial production. With the rapid advancement of cleaning technologies, industrial cleaning has been applied in nearly all industrial sectors, including textile printing and dyeing, petrochemicals, machinery, mining and smelting, surface treatment, chemical engineering, instruments and meters, electronics, semiconductors, clocks and jewelry, biology, and optics. This fully demonstrates the huge market potential and robust development momentum of industrial cleaning.
Generally speaking, industrial cleaning agents are classified into chemical cleaning, physical cleaning and microbial cleaning based on their working principles. Chemical cleaning boasts the longest development history, the widest range of applications and the most diverse product types. Meanwhile, chemical cleaning agents are roughly divided into three categories according to their water content: organic solvent cleaning agents, water-based cleaning agents and semi-water-based cleaning agents.
This article elaborates on the formula composition, cleaning performance and future development trends of these three types of chemical cleaning agents respectively.
1.Organic Solvent Cleaners
Organic solvent cleaners mainly refer to organic solvents that contain no water in their formulations. Most of them take hydrocarbons (alkanes, aromatic hydrocarbons), chlorinated hydrocarbons, fluorinated hydrocarbons, alcohols, alcohol ethers and other substances as the main raw materials. The working mechanism of organic solvent cleaning is to directly dissolve substances that are insoluble in water but soluble in organic solvents, such as grease, wax, resin, rubber, dyes, some adhesives and other organic contaminants.
Organic solvent cleaners feature liquid state at normal temperature and atmospheric pressure, good fluidity and low viscosity. They are highly volatile, leaving little to no residue on the surface of objects after cleaning, and will not corrode or damage base materials during the cleaning process.
Nevertheless, the high volatility of organic solvents, accompanied by low boiling points, makes them prone to escaping into the environment. Among these substances, chlorinated hydrocarbons, fluorinated hydrocarbons and other halogenated hydrocarbons are toxic to the human body. Alcohols and alcohol ethers are lipophilic, which can cause considerable harm to humans, animals and the ecological environment.
For instance, certain organic solvent cleaners that have been banned, such as trichlorotrifluoroethane, carbon tetrachloride, trichloroethane and perbromoalkanes, deliver excellent cleaning performance and bring economic benefits. However, these substances deplete the ozone layer and pose a threat to the Earth. In addition, it is extremely difficult to recycle and collect their residual components, so their use has been officially prohibited.
Early water-based cleaning agents mainly adopted highly alkaline inorganic alkalis or inorganic salts. Their simple formulas and strong alkalinity brought numerous drawbacks during cleaning and greatly compromised the cleaning performance. Modern water-based cleaning agents have overcome these shortcomings. They incorporate surfactants, complexing agents, corrosion inhibitors, stabilizers, solubilizers and other functional ingredients, with customized formulas rationally developed according to different cleaning purposes and base materials.
For instance, degreasing prior to electroplating uses compounded ingredients such as polyether, triethanolamine oleate and sodium fatty alcohol polyoxyethylene ether sulfate. This compounded formula is basically non-corrosive to base materials. It requires no heating during use, produces low foam, delivers excellent cleaning results, features low dosage and cost, and is easy to operate. It is non-toxic and environmentally friendly, suitable for both manual and mechanical cleaning with simple post-cleaning treatment.
Formula optimization of water-based cleaning agents also enables multiple functions to be realized simultaneously. When cleaning copper parts, polishing ingredients can be added to the cleaning formula to complete cleaning and polishing in one single process. A typical formula consists of coconut oil fatty acid diethanolamide, glycerin and dodecylbenzenesulfonic acid, together with corrosion inhibitors and brighteners. It maintains strong degreasing capacity and properly regulates the pH value to prevent copper parts from corrosion caused by excessively low pH. The added corrosion inhibitors and brighteners endow cleaned copper parts with good luster. If film-forming protectants are compounded into the formula, a protective film will form on the surface of copper parts, keeping them bright for a long time after cleaning.
To pursue eco-friendly cleaning, water-based cleaning agents have been further developed with biodegradable and non-toxic biological cleaning components such as alkyl glycosides and sophorolipids. A typical formula takes alkyl glycosides and sophorolipids as surfactants, nitrilotriacetic acid as a complexing agent, sodium alginate as a thickener, and sodium gluconate as an auxiliary ingredient. All these components feature good biocompatibility, high microbial degradation rate and minimal skin irritation. Besides, the auxiliaries contain no phosphorus, making the products highly eco-friendly. Such cleaning agents are widely used as green cleaners for kitchens, bathrooms and other living areas, boasting broad application prospects.
Water-based cleaning agents make up for the deficiencies of organic solvent cleaners. They are low-cost, safe and eco-friendly, with easily accessible and renewable raw materials. Therefore, water-based cleaning agents can serve as an ideal substitute for organic solvent cleaners while achieving equivalent cleaning effects.
3.Semi-water-based Cleaning Agent
Semi-aqueous cleaning agents differ from organic solvent-based cleaning agents in that water and surfactants are added to organic solvents. For this reason, they are also referred to as emulsion cleaning agents or microemulsion cleaning agents in some literatures.
Their cleaning mechanism combines the mechanisms of water-based cleaning agents containing surfactants and solvent-based cleaning agents. Semi-aqueous cleaning agents retain the advantages of traditional solvent-based cleaning agents, namely strong detergency against oil stains and excellent wetting and penetration performance on substrates. Meanwhile, they deliver enhanced removal capacity for water-based contaminants. Compared with organic solvent-based cleaning agents, they also feature improved cleaning performance on inorganic contaminants. The addition of water raises the flash point and lowers the volatility of the cleaning agents, which improves the safety of the original solvents and expands their scope of application.
Based on the solubility of organic solvents in water, semi-aqueous cleaning agents are generally classified into water-soluble solvent type and water-insoluble solvent type. Water-soluble solvents are mainly alcohols, ethers and ketones. They work effectively on both oily and water-based contaminants, yet they are flammable. Formulating them into semi-aqueous cleaning agents with a small amount of water can reduce flammability for safer use. Water-insoluble solvents primarily include petroleum-based hydrocarbon solvents, terpene hydrocarbon solvents and halogenated hydrocarbons. They also have low flash points and are highly flammable and explosive. When such organic solvents are made into semi-aqueous cleaning agents, the large difference in surface tension between non-aqueous organic solvents and water will lead to incompatibility and stratification if only water is added. Therefore, surfactants need to be incorporated to reduce the interfacial tension between the two phases, improve compatibility and achieve uniform mixing.
Post time: May-28-2026