Performance of vicinal diols ethoxylate containing double hydrophilic headgroups in metal cleaner formulations

Abstract Vicinal diol ethoxylate nonionic surfactants, characterized by their double hydrophilic head groups and Y-type molecular structure, exhibit excellent surface activity, wettability and emulsification properties. However, their use in metal cleaner formulations has not been reported so far. Here, we synthesized vicinal diol ethoxylates based on our previous research and selected C 12 vicinal diol ethoxylate (DC 12 E 3 ) for use in typical metal cleaner formulations. We systematically evaluated the various properties of the formulation. Compared to commercial surfactants such as TX-10, C 12 AEO 9 and TO-1309, DC 12 E 3 showed superior dynamic surface tension at 10 ms, with the order being DC 12 E 3 < TO-1309 < TX-10 < C 12 AEO 9 . Contact angle measurements showed the following order TO-1309 (44.07°) < DC 12 E 3 (49.54°) < C 12 AEO 9 (56.78°) < TX-10 (59.65°). The cleaning performance of a 10 % detergent solution was tested on standard soiling on duralumin surfaces, resulting in the following cleaning performance order: TX-10 < DC 12 E 3 ≈ C 12 AEO 9 < TO-1309. The corrosiveness of the detergent solution on different metals (duralumin, copper, carbon steel) was also evaluated. For carbon steel the order of corrosiveness was DC 12 E 3 < TX-10 < TO-1309 ≈ C 12 AEO 9 . These results indicate that vicinal diol ethoxylates have potential for broad application and provide valuable insights for the formulation of aqueous metal cleaners.