Surfactants & Derivatives

Multiple effects for foaming, wetting, emulsifying and cleaning

The Surfactants & Derivatives segment includes the business areas of anionic surfactants, non-ionic surfactants, amphoteric surfactants (betaines) as well as household and industrial cleaners, detergents and personal care products. PCC Exol SA is one of the most advanced producers of surface-active agents – surfactants – in Central and Eastern Europe, and the only manufacturer in Poland. The Group subsidiary offers over 200 products, both for domestic uses – the manufacture of household cleaners, laundry detergents and personal care products – and for industrial applications. Because surfactants are exceptionally multifunctional.

In Piedmont, in the US state of South Carolina, PCC Chemax, Inc. also develops specialty surfactants for industrial applications, which it markets on a global scale.

In the Surfactants segment, we also manage the downstream activities of PCC Consumer Products S.A. in the area of consumer goods, the important basic components of which are surfactants. Our consumer goods production includes household and industrial cleaning products as well as detergents and personal care products. We distribute these both under our own brand names and as a private label manufacturer.

What are surfactants?

Surfactants are surface-active agents. They reduce the surface tension of a liquid or, for example, reduce the interfacial tension between a solid surface and a liquid. Generally, surfactants exhibit a molecular structure comprising a hydrophilic (“water-attracting”) component (the head) and a hydrophobic (“water-repelling”) hydrocarbon radical (the tail). It is this mix that provides the basis for their exceptional diversity of action, i.e. their capability to foam, wet, emulsify and clean.

One traditional surfactant known throughout the ages is soap. However, modern surfactants serve a far richer range of applications. They constitute indispensible components of a wide spectrum of consumer goods – from laundry care and dishwashing detergents to shampoos, toothpastes and cosmetic products. Surfactants are also used in the food and pharmaceutical industries. The Surfactants segment of PCC comprises the business units Anionic Surfactants, Non-ionic Surfactants, and Amphoteric Surfactants (Betaines).

Modes of action

Foaming
Foam (aka suds, lather) occurs where air is entrapped in a surfactant solution – for example as the result of shaking. The surfactant molecules arrange themselves at the liquid/air interface, thus creating the envelopes we know as soap bubbles. During cleaning processes, this formation of foam is often desirable because it ensures, for example, that water is able to penetrate the structure of a fabric more effectively. Heavy foaming can, however, also be disruptive – in which case defoamers are used, which are also based on surfactants.

Wetting
Used as wetting agents, surfactants reduce the interfacial tension between a solid and a liquid. That enables water, for example, to become more evenly distributed over a hard surface rather than coagulating into droplets. The solid is then said to have been wetted.

Emulsifying
Surfactants can make generally mutually repellent liquids, such as water and oil, miscible in the form of an emulsion. Because of the “amphiphilic” – that is to say simultaneously “water-attracting” and “water-repelling” – nature of surfactants, they are able to penetrate the oil with their fat-dissolving portion. The oil droplets caused e.g. by stirring, remain finely distributed through the action of the hydrophilic component of the molecule.

Cleaning
A further action mode of surfactants lies in their ability to promote the detachment of small solid particles from solid surfaces, as in the removal of dirt from textiles. Surfactants support the formation and retention of a suspension by becoming deposited around the solid particles, thus inhibiting their agglomeration and preventing them from sinking. Further deposition on solid surfaces which are covered by a surfactant layer is also avoided.

Application spectrum

Cleaning detergents and personal care products
Anionic, non-ionic and amphoteric surfactants are basic components of laundry detergents, household cleaners and personal care products such as shampoos and shower gels. They promote skin compatibility, can produce a pearlescent effect and beneficially modify the flow properties of liquids.

Textile manufacturing
Surfactant-based foaming and wetting agents, emulsifiers, defoamers and dispersants are used in the following processes: cleaning, spinning, bleaching, scouring, dyeing and fibre maceration.

Construction industry
Surfactants are used here as foaming agents in fibreboard and plasterboard panel production, as additives in the manufacture of chipboard, and as superplasticizers for fresh concrete mixtures.

PCC Consumer Products

The largest consumer goods company in the PCC Group is PCC Consumer Products Kosmet Sp. z o.o. based at our chemical site in Brzeg Dolny. It is one of the leading Polish private label manufacturers in the field of household cleaning products, detergents and personal care. Our core market is Poland. Our consumer goods activities are bundled under the umbrella of the Holding PCC Consumer Products S.A. based in Warsaw.

Application range of PCC consumer goods

Household and industrial cleaners, detergents and personal care products
Cleaning products for floors, sanitary facilities and glass surfaces, for hand hygiene, as well as universal cleaners for the following sectors:

Authorities
Cleaning companies
Hotels and restaurants
Food industry
Agriculture

Private labels
As a leading private label manufacturer, we focus on manufacturing products under our own brands for leading discounters and retail chains, primarily in Poland. We have been one of the most important private label providers there for many years – as a specialist in the production of all liquid agents in the field of industrial, household chemicals and cosmetics.

Our products

For more information on our products, please visit PCC’s extensive product portal on www.products.pcc.eu containing more than 1,300 products and chemical formulations for numerous industrial applications.