TERGITOL™ EH Surfactants are a new generation of high-performance, readily biodegradable specialty nonionic surfactants that are fast wetting and have low odor. They are designed for use in hard surface cleaning, textile processing, and wetting of both hard and soft surfaces.
TERGITOL™ EH Surfactants Surfactants have an excellent environmental profile: they are readily biodegradable per OECD 301 F, and have an aquatic toxicity EC50> 10 mg/L. These surfactants meet the criteria for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Design for the Environment Surfactant Screen. Compared to primary alcohol ethoxylates and nonylphenol ethoxylates (Table 2), ECOSURFTM EH Surfactants can provide greater flexibility to meet increasingly stringent environmental regulations, even at low levels of ethoxylation
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Benefits:
- Readily biodegradable
- Fast wetting
- Dynamic Surface tension
- Low foaming profile
- Chemically stable in the presence of dilute acids, bases and salts
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Surfactant Performance Comparison
TERGITOL™ EH Surfactants equal or surpass the performance of other surfactants under most formulation conditions, according to Dow internal studies, as shown below.
| Product | Wetting @ 0.1% | Gel Formation | Pour Point | Formula Stability | Hard Surface Cleaning | Aquatic Toxicity | Biodegration |
| TERGITOL™ EH Surfactants | E | E | E | E | E | E | G |
| Alcohol Alkoxylate | E | E | E | E | M | M | G |
| Nonylphenol ethoxylate | E | P | G | G | E | M | P |
| Primary alcohol ethoxylate E P P G M M G (C12-C15) | E | P | P | G | M | M | G |
P = Poor, M= Marginal, G = Good, VG = Very Good, E = Excellent
Comparison based on cloud point
TERGITOL™ EH-3 Surfactant
TERGITOL™ EH-3 Surfactant is an excellent oil-soluble emulsifier with a low HLB, ideally suited for nonaqueous hard surface cleaning applications. It can be combined with higher mole EH Surfactants to improve water solubility, and enhance oily soil removal. TERGITOL™ EH-3 Surfactant has low foam and very low odor. Its narrow gel range makes it appropriate for ultraconcentrate formulas. It exhibits fast dynamic surface tension reduction. Dow’s internal tests indicate that ECOSURF™ EH-3 is the only low mole surfactant currently on the market that exhibits aquatic toxicity > 10mg/L.
TERGITOL™ EH-6 Surfactant
With exceptional wetting capabilities, ECOSURF™ EH-6 Surfactant is ideally suited for many hard surface cleaning applications, including metal cleaning. Especially effective on greasy kitchen soils, it has low foam and very low odor, and is easy to formulate. Its narrow gel range makes it appropriate for ultraconcentrate formulas. It exhibits fast dynamic surface tension reduction, and has low aquatic toxicity.
TERGITOL™ EH-9 Surfactant
With exceptional wetting capabilities, ECOSURF™ EH-9 Surfactant is ideally suited for hard surface cleaning applications. It has low foam and very low odor, and is an ideal choice for higher temperature applications. Its narrow gel range makes it appropriate for ultraconcentrate formulas. It exhibits fast dynamic surface tension reduction, and has very low aquatic toxicity
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