Ask HN: What advances in chemistry make super efficient cleaners possible?

4 points·gtirloni··4 comments

The type of thing that gets advertised as not needing much brushing to clean stains from walls, etc. Or cleaning dishes. Or removing stains from clothes. Are they related to some advances in chemistry somehow?

It seems these things got way better lately and I was wondering what makes it possible.

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As far as I understand cleaning is all about solvents.

If you use the right solvent something that would be impossible to clean with the wrong material will become trivial with the right one.

There are also acid solutions that work in a different but similar way. When used appropriately they will dissolve and transform material X into material Y that can then be easily cleaned because it won’t bind to the “surface” anymore.

Applied sciences channel on YouTube has a couple videos about cleaning and solvents. It’s worth checking him out.

Solvation is part of it (particularly for soaps and mineral spirits), but the main factors are oxidation and, as you stated, acid/pH. Oxidation removes organic stains (e.g. foods, mold-stains) and, depending on the strength, disinfects (e.g. Bleach). Mutually exclusive from oxidizing cleaners, acid-based cleaners dissolve insoluble inorganics (lime/rust build-up).

It seems like it was always possible to do these things with something (salt, baking powder, potatoes, etc). Maybe they just found a better way of putting it in a bottle.

I would be wary of spray cleaners.

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