Micronized Cleaning Dispersions

Synthetic detergents along with certain cleaners such as ammonia can only do so much in removing contaminants such as greasy finger prints. By adding certain silica particles to your cleaning solution it becomes possible to "scour" the microscopic surface of glass without doing harm to it. All that is needed is a handfull of powder to about three gallons of soapy water. Even a mild soap can be used. Here the soap such as a cationic surfactant is used primarily to add glide to your squeegee blade. Not so much to clean. The silica particles which are about the same size as the diameter of the pores of a glass surface will do most of the cleaning. They will effectively scour the surface. Reaching deep down into the pores, digging out any and all grease or any other contaminant. The zeta potential isn't great enough to keep these particles permanantly suspended. We would have to drop down to the nano level for that. But they will stay suspended for a few hours while you work with your cleaner. When working you will notice that the color of the water will turn a slight white. But this is good since it lets you know that your particles are in suspension where they will be most effective. When you dump out your bucket there will be some powder left at the bottom. But not much. This however is the reason why no one has commercialized a product like this. Although it might be possible to add the powder directly to the pure syn-det. There it likely will remain in suspension much longer. A time limit of six months is required for all commercial products. This is called the shelf life. Particles are also chemically treated to help bring them into a water based suspension. In fact, if they have not been properly treated, they will not go into suspension at all.

Henry Grover Jr.
Glass Tech Consulting
gtcnews@hotmail.com