A compound that reduces the droplet size and lowers the surface tension of the water, making it wetter, so a liquid concentrate dish soap is a good wetting agent if it is biodegradable.
A surfactant is a chemical compound that decreases the surface tension or interfacial tension between two liquids, a liquid and a gas, or a liquid and a solid. The word surfactant is a blend of "surface-active agent", coined in 1950. As they consist of a water-repellent and a water-attracting part, they are emulsifiers, enabling water and oil to mix. They can also form foam, and facilitate the detachment of dirt.
Surfactants are among the most widespread and commercially important chemicals. Private households as well as many industries use them in large quantities as detergents and cleaning agents, but also as emulsifiers, wetting agents, foaming agents, antistatic additives, and dispersants.
Surfactants occur naturally in traditional plant-based detergents, e.g. horse chestnuts or soap nuts; they can also be found in the secretions of some caterpillars. Some of the most commonly used anionic surfactants, linear alkylbenzene sulfates (LAS), are produced from petroleum products. However, surfactants are increasingly produced in whole or in part from renewable biomass, like sugar, fatty alcohol from vegetable oils, by-products of biofuel production, and other biogenic material.
English
Noun
wetting agent (plural wetting agents)
- A substance, such as a surfactant, that reduces the surface tension of a liquid, allowing it to spread across and penetrate the surface of a solid.
See also
Further reading
- “wetting agent”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
- “wetting agent” in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Longman.
- “wetting agent”, in Collins English Dictionary.
