Common Hazardous Surfactants

Surfactant is widely used in human life, but it is undeniable that it is still a chemical product. There are many raw materials of surfactants with certain toxicity and pollution. Inevitably, it will cause harm to the environment. If it comes into contact with the human body, it will also cause certain irritation to the human skin. Some of them are even highly toxic and corrosive, which will cause great damage to the human body. Introduction of several common harmful surfactants: A.APEO: APEO is one of the common non-ionic surfactants, it is composed of alkyl moiety and ethoxy moiety, with the length of the former carbon chain Different from the amount of the latter bonus, APEO will have many different forms of existence, and the performance of different forms is also very different. In the synthesis of APEO, its main product is not carcinogenic, but its by-products can cause certain corrosiveness to the skin and eyes, and can even cause cancer in severe cases. Although not directly harmful to organisms, APEO has environmental hormone problems. Chemical substances enter the human body in various ways, and play a role similar to estrogen in the human body, disrupting the body's normal hormone secretion, thereby reducing the amount of sperm produced by men. Not only is it harmful to humans, but its synthetic raw material NPEO is also reported to be more harmful to fish3. B.PFOS: The full name of PFOS is perfluorooctane sulfonyl compound. PFOS is a general term for a class of perfluorosurfactants. It has an environmental amplification effect. Due to the special physical and chemical properties of PFOS, it is quite difficult to degrade and is considered to be It is one of the most difficult substances to degrade. It enters the animal and human body through the food chain and accumulates in a large amount, which has a great impact on the health of the organism. Large accumulation of C.LAS: LAS can cause great harm to the environment. It is an important organic pollutant because it can change the physical and chemical properties of the land, such as the pH value and water content of the soil. make it difficult for plants to grow. In addition, after entering the water body, LAS can also combine with other pollutants to form dispersed colloidal particles, and it is toxic to the larvae of higher organisms and lower organisms3. D. Fluorocarbon surfactants: PFOA and PFOS are the main two types of traditional fluorocarbon surfactants. However, some studies have reported that these compounds are highly toxic. It can cause continuous pollution to the environment and can accumulate in a large amount in organisms. Therefore, it was classified as persistent organic pollutants (POSs)4 by the United Nations and in 2009.