Consumers in the home care industry demand enhanced hard surface formulations for easy cleaning, as they continue to face tough stains found mainly in the kitchen and bathroom. Greasy and oily stains from cooking, cosmetics and other residues can be challenging to remove, and formulators must provide the industry with powerful cleaning solutions. Syensqo's powerful polymers for hard surface cleaning offer a wide range of beneficial soil release properties to deliver streak-free, effortless cleaning formulations that prevent future soil adhesion for improved subsequent cleansing on a variety of surfaces. Additionally, as trends evolve, our broad portfolio of surface care polymers enable significant versatility and design flexibility for home care formulators.
The Mirapol® Surf Range, amongst other ingredients, provides an outstanding selection of solutions for hard surface cleaners to deliver an effortless, long-lasting clean.
Key Requirements and Consumer Expectations for Hard Surface Cleaners
Hard surface cleaner formulations must deliver a range of consumer benefits and expectations. Consumers expect effortless cleaning, as they do not want to spend the time scrubbing only for soils to remain. Consumers associate clean with visual and other sensorial cues, creating the need for spot-free, long-lasting shines solutions, as well as an enhanced fragrance experience. Additionally, fast-drying is a key property in hard surface cleaners, as it makes for easier, more efficient cleaning and prevents streaks, saving time and reducing effort.
These properties are difficult to attain, as most formulations are made with over 90% water. The remaining ingredients are the property-enhancing components, such as specialty polymers, surfactants and fragrance additives, which leaves little room for differentiation. Easy cleaning and shine polymers for hard surface cleaners are integral to formulation processes, as they not only improve performance, but also provide visible indicators of cleaning efficacy to consumers.
A Variety of Soils and Stains on Hard Surfaces
Consumers today face a variety of difficult-to-remove stains and soils on hard surfaces, mostly found in the kitchen and bathroom for bathtubs and toilet bowls. The types of stains vary from room to room, as kitchen surfaces are often stained from greasy and oily soils, and bathroom stains derive from cosmetics, greasy residues and soap scum. Soap scum, a tough-to-remove soil, is a mix of soap and hard water, which has a high content of mineral ions. When these components are mixed, they attract each other and form visible deposits in showers and other hard surfaces.
Syensqo's polymers for hard surface cleaning, such as the Mirapol® Surf Range, prevent the adhesion of tough soils like soap scum and even limescale build-up. Mirapol® Surf-S 900, for instance, is one of Syensqo's best-in-class polymers for a longer-lasting clean. This powerful additive provides durable soil repellency, shine and anti-limescale encrustation benefits for acidic toilet bowl cleaners and bathroom cleaners.
Safe, Eco-Friendly and Effective Formulations for Tough Stains and Soils
Formulators continue to search for alternatives to preservatives such as isothiazolinones, as regulations are also evolving toward authorized levels of this category and reducing preservatives as low as possible. Accordingly, Syensqo develops an array of self-preserved ingredients, which have become integral to success in the homecare industry. Some preservatives were found to not be safe, for neither the consumer nor the environment. Accordingly, simpler formulations with fewer ingredients and preservatives continue to grow as a popular trend.
Syensqo's broad portfolio of surface care polymers contains several safe, effective, and effortless cleaning formulations. Mirapol® Surf-S 900, for example, is a biocide-free, easy cleaning polymer that offers long-lasting soil repellency and enhanced shine properties. Additionally, Mirataine® LHS is a high RCI and biodegradable high foaming sultaine that is ideal for both extreme acid and alkaline formulations. Mirataine® LHS displays excellent stability and is optimal to remove kitchen stains, such as baked-on food.
Mirapol® Surf Range of Polymers for Hard Surface Cleaners
Mirapol® Surf-S 900 is a high-performance specialty polymer for tough stains on hard surfaces and is the most durable specialty polymer in its portfolio. Its excellent adhesion properties enable formulations to stay on the surface for more than 100 cycles of rinsing. Additionally, Mirapol® Surf-S 900 is the only grade that prevents limescale build-up on bathroom surfaces and toilets, which reduces pipe deterioration.
Mirapol® Surf-S 600 is a versatile surface care polymer, and is EPA approved as an inert ingredient for hard surface sanitizers. It provides bathroom and kitchen cleaners with excellent spot-free, water sheeting and fast-drying properties for daily soils such as grease or oils. Mirapol® Surf-S 600 is a premium-grade, preservative-free product.
Mirapol® Surf N is an innovative, naturally-derived, high-active polymer that boosts cleaners with additional hard surface hydrophilization technology. It is particularly well-suited for easy cleaning of plastic surfaces such as PMMA, Melamine and polycarbonates, as it prevents the formation of grease and soils to make for easier subsequent cleaning. Mirapol® Surf-N facilitates hard surface cleaning formulations that deliver shinier surfaces due to its anti-spotting and anti-streaking properties and its reduced drying time.
To learn more about Syensqo's ingredients for hard surface cleaning formulations, contact our experts.
