Add APG® surfactants – Power to your formulations
APG® surfactants are characterized by special properties: As non-ionic surfactants, they have outstanding wetting and dispersion capabilities. Even in extremely hard water, they are able to most effectively reduce surface tension. Thanks to their unusual qualities, they can considerably increase the efficacy of active ingredients.
We obtain the biodegradable APG® surfactants from natural resources. As they are especially mild, they also play an important role in cosmetic and body care formulations. Pesticide formulations containing APG® surfactants in liquid form already exist in the agriculture market. In plant protection products, too, they ensure good skin compatibility, making the products safer to use.
APG® brand alkylpolyglycosides are non-ionic surfactants consisting of a hydrophilic saccharide moiety and a hydrophobic fatty alkyl chain. The short to medium alkyl chain length derivatives are water soluble. APG® surfactants exhibit excellent wetting and surface tension reduction, impart electrolyte and hard water tolerance, and act as hydrotropes and dispersants. They are synthesized from renewable raw materials, have very favorable ecotoxicological profiles and are readily biodegradable.
Benefits:
- Increased efficacy
- Cost reduction
- Excellent wetting properties
- Excellent reduction of surface tension
- Hard water tolerance
- Very mild and compatible
- Very favorable ecotoxicological profiles
- Obtained from renewable resources
- Almost totally biodegradable
APG® – A success story
Cognis has been developing APG® (alkylpolyglycosides) surfactants numerous formulations for approximately 15 years now, but their history reaches back to the 19th century.
In 1893, the German chemist Emil Fischer combined fatty alcohols and glucose obtained from coconut or palm kernel oil and corn for the first time, thus creating a new category of substances: the alkylglycosides.
It was to take almost one hundred years, however, to progress from simple laboratory experiments to the industrial production of APG®surfactants and their use in chemical formulations. In 1989, Cognis, at the time still part of the Henkel Group, succeeded with this breakthrough following costly and complex research and development work.
APG® surfactants were originally developed for skin and hair care, as well as for the home care sector. Thanks to their exceptional mildness and performance, however, they were soon being used in many other areas of the chemical industry.
Cognis, now the world’s largest manufacturer of APG® surfactants, produces this high-quality products annually at its locations in Düsseldorf, Germany, and Cincinnati, Ohio (USA), and the demand continues to increase.
This is not surprising, since the outstanding characteristics of the APG® surfactants are in line with current trends: Obtained 100% from renewable resources, APG® surfactants are almost completely biodegradable and are characterized by outstanding environmental compatibility. Even during mineralization to CO2 and water, no environmentally harmful intermediates are formed.
In addition, they release no undesirable by-products such as nitrogen, ethylene oxide and preservatives.
Due to their great stability in a wide pH range and their unusual flexibility, APG® surfactants are used in the most varied formulations – from plant protection products to industrial cleaners for beverage bottles. They create excellent synergies not only when combined with ether sulfates, but also when mixed with many other surfactant classes. Surfactant products based on or containing APG® surfactants demonstrate extraordinarily good compatibility.