Each natural stone is unique and has its own fascinating charisma. If you look closely, you will notice that the texture, structure and color of each piece is unique. In order to preserve the natural beauty of natural stone worktops, the stone surfaces are made grease, oil, water and dirt-repellent by impregnation during manufacture. This reduces the formation of stains many times over and makes cleaning much easier.
The first impregnation is not visible to the eye and is also physiologically harmless. However, this protection wears off over time through cleaning and should be renewed at regular intervals. Natural stone countertop cleaners such as the Emma Grün countertop cleaner granite, marble and cement are suitable for this. The sooner the natural stone is cleaned after use, the easier and free of traces it is to clean. Because the longer dyes such as beetroot, cherries, but also residues of fats such as oils and butter can soak into the microscopically tiny crystal gaps of the material, the more difficult it is to remove them again. For this reason, foods with a high coloring content and fatty foods should not be processed directly on natural stone countertops.
Also, be careful with acidic foods like citrus fruits and vinegar: they will attack types of marble, cement, granite and limestone and destroy the polish. Cleaning utensils such as scouring pads also ruin the surfaces of natural stone. That's why you should generally avoid them and use soft sponges and cloths for cleaning.
Another fact that damages the sensitive surfaces of natural stone are grease-dissolving all-purpose cleaners and soft soaps. They make the stone porous over time and form residues. The result: your worktops lose their natural beauty and get dirty faster than before. With natural stone cleaners, on the other hand, which are based on sustainable ingredients such as nonionic surfactants, cleaning works in a gentle way.
What surfactants are there and why are nonionic surfactants better for the environment?
Surfactants are among the washing-active substances. They are responsible for the miscibility of two liquids that actually cannot be mixed. But how does it work? Surfactants consist of a water-repellent (hydrophobic) part of the molecule and a water-loving (hydrophilic) part of the molecule. They are therefore located at the interfaces between two different substances. Put simply, if we consider a water-oil mixture, one surfactant would point in the direction of the water and the other in the direction of the oil. The result: the surfactants ensure that the interfacial tension of both substances is reduced, the surfactant acts as an intermediary and both substances can be mixed with each other.
The fact is: According to EU legislation, all surfactants available on the market must degrade within 28 days. Each type of surfactant acts differently: some are very good for washing and others more for emulsifying. Depending on the electrical charge of the hydrophilic molecule, they are divided into four different groups:
Anionic Surfactants: These surfactants are negatively charged. They have a high detergency, foam a lot and are therefore mainly used in the manufacture of detergents. They can also be found in household cleaners and dishwashing detergents as well as in hair shampoos. Due to their ingredients, they are classified as questionable.
Catonic Surfactants: These types of surfactants are positively charged. They are made from animal fats and have minimal cleaning power. Because they make laundry soft and hair easier to comb, and also have an antistatic effect, they are often used in fabric softeners and shampoos. Catonic surfactants can cause skin diseases. If they get into the sewage system, they also harm the environment.
Nonionic Surfactants: These surfactants have no charge. They are used as a sustainable ingredient in detergents and cleaning agents. Skin cleansing and care products also benefit from their mode of action. Compared to other surfactants, nonionic surfactants are skin-friendly and more easily degradable. In addition, they are less sensitive to hardness than, for example, anionic surfactants, which means that they develop their full effect even at low washing temperatures.
Amphoteric surfactants: They have a negatively and a positively charged group and are also known as "zwitterionic surfactants". They serve as co-surfactants for other surfactants, are mainly of plant origin and are gentle on the skin. They are used in shampoos, cosmetic products and detergents. In addition to the nonionic surfactants, they are considered to be the most environmentally friendly of their kind.
Which surfactants should you avoid and which ones should you use?
If you do the dishes, clean your hair or wash your hair and the product used produces huge amounts of foam in combination with water, anionic surfactants are usually responsible for this. On the other hand, nonionic surfactants such as the sugar surfactant foam less, but that does not mean that they are less effective. But how do you differentiate between the individual products based on the INCI declaration? Good tip: The endings reveal whether it is a mild or aggressive surfactant in the different groups.
The anionic surfactants
The aggressive representatives of the anionic surfactants can be recognized by the suffix “sulphate”. Examples include ammonium laureth sulfate and sodium/ammonium lauryl sulfate . Slightly less aggressive are surfactants such as disodium laureth sulfosuccinate and alkyl carboxylate . Among the skin-friendliest of this group are representatives such as the anionic surfactant disodium/sodium cocoyl glutamate .
The nonionic surfactants
The most important group of nonionic surfactants are the fatty alcohol ethoxylates (FAEO). Examples of these generally well-tolerated surfactants are as follows:
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Laureth-4 / Laureth-3 / Laureth-7 / Laureth-10
- Ceteth-24 / Ceteth-20 / Ceteth-10 / Ceteth-2
The mildest surfactants among the nonionic representatives are the sugar surfactants. They are declared on the packaging under the name " Glucoside ". Well-known examples are Caprylyl , Coco Glucoside and Capryl Glocoside .
The amphoteric surfactants
The mild, environmentally friendly and skin-friendly amphoteric surfactants often end with the suffix "betaine". Other amphoteric surfactants are cocoaamphodipropionate and disodium lauroamphodiacetate .
Conclusion
Surfactants can be found in countless products. Some are more aggressive and some are milder. Because of this, it is advisable to always take a closer look at the ingredients contained in products when buying them. As a rule, mild surfactants work just as effortlessly as the aggressive representatives, if not even better, as can be seen very well with the amphoteric and nonionic surfactants. They are also more skin-friendly and less harmful to the environment. What more do you want.
