Chemistry · Ch 16 — Chemistry in Everyday Life
Cleansing Agents
16.5
Cleansing Agents
Cleansing Agents: Two Chemical Families, One Cleaning Job
Cleansing agents, taken in the broad sense, fall into two chemical families: soaps and synthetic detergents. Both types of substance work by the same general principle - they improve the cleansing properties of ordinary water and help strip away the greasy or fatty films that would otherwise bind ordinary dirt and other particulate material t …