MULTI-FUNCTIONAL POLYMER SCAFFOLDS FOR CLEANING CATALYSIS

Lead Research Organisation: Queen Mary University of London
Department Name: Sch of Biological and Chemical Sciences

Abstract

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Description People share a common desire to wear clean clothes, regardless of their wealth or nationality. Current detergent formulations are a complex mixture of reagents, but in terms of their cleaning composition they can broadly be considered to contain (i) surfactants to solubilise fabric-based stains; (ii) enzymes to digest stains and (iii) bleaches to degrade and increase the hydrophillicity of coloured stains. Typically, these formulations require non-ambient temperature water to be effective. There is a clear societal, economic and environmental benefit to developing cold water cleaning technology for example in the developed world the significant reduction in energy requirements will have economic benefit to users and the UK economy by reducing energy bills associated with heating water (UK government statistics suggest that the average UK washing machine is used for 270 wash cycles per year with each cycle using 16 L of water. The cost of heating that water (assuming 10 p/kWh and 2.4 M households) is estimated to be in the order of £184 million); this reduction in energy demand will also reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power generation. While the technological problems of cleaning in cold water are many-fold, ultimately it is the limited performance of the bleaching catalysts and enzymes used to remove stains at these temperatures that are major contributors to the problem. This project therefore sought to develop new methods to clean clothes at lower temperatures, specifically through the development of small molecule catalysts capable of activating bleaches currently present in detergent formulations at lower temperatures. We were able to develop a number of catalytic systems which performed impressively against model stain substrates using hydrogen peroxide as the oxidant. We then supported the small molecule catalysts on specially designed polymer scaffolds in order to minimize the self-destruction of bleaching catalysts, damage to clothes and other important components in standard detergent formulations, notably enzymes. These polymer-supported catalysts were first tested against the same model substrates that had been used for the small molecule precursors to confirm that activity was retained, before they were screened against an industrial wash-matrix against which they showed high efficacy. Discussions are currently ongoing with our industrial sponsors as to how to develop this technology further.
Exploitation Route This research could be used in the detergent industry to develop improved cleaning products for low-temperature washing of clothes for the general public. This research has potential to reduce the environmental impact of laundry washing in the developed world as well as emancipate millions of people who spend almost their entire lives washing by hand in cold water in the developing world.
Sectors Chemicals