Chemical Cleaning

Abstract

Most cleaning processes proceed by the synergistic effect of physical and chemical actions. The role of chemical actions is to reduce the work requirements of a whole cleaning process. The cleaning using chemical action is referred to as chemical cleaning. The power of chemical cleaning for organic soils, including biofilms, on a hard surface is due to the actions of several detergent ingredients, such as alkaline constituents, ion-sequestering agents, surface-active agents, and oxidizing agents. Alkaline constituents are very effective in removing a variety of organic soils. Sodium hypochlorite is a convenient material to achieve both cleaning and disinfection in a single process. Surface-active agents can lower the surface tension of a chlorinated alkaline solution and confer penetrating power on the solution. For optimizing a cleaning process, it is required to combine two or more chemical agents effectively.