Anti bacterial floor cleaner

Tagged: formula development, formulating, ingredients, manufacturing, safety

Formulating

Anti bacterial floor cleaner

Posted by gaurangwalunj on August 12, 2019 at 9:52 am

I am formulating a floor cleaner with following ingredients.
BK50- 2.45 % w/w
Lauryl alcohol ethoxylate-5%
CAPB- 0.5%
Sodium bicarbonate-5%
EDTA-0.2%

Above formulation gives good cleaning. But I just wanted to that whether sodium bicarbonate and LAE quantities are not in excess and whether it will be too harsh on skin.

gaurangwalunj replied 5 years, 4 months ago 5 Members · 8 Replies
8 Replies

JonahRay

Member
August 13, 2019 at 4:10 pm

Floor cleaner - but too harsh on skin?
ozgirl

Member
August 14, 2019 at 11:52 pm

What is the purpose of the sodium bicarbonate? It seems unnecessary.

It is most likely that this formulation going to be irritating to skin/eyes because benzalkonium chloride is corrosive to skin and eyes at high concentrations. Your customers should not really be putting floor cleaner on their skin so there shouldn’t be a problem as long as the product is labelled correctly.
Gunther

Member
August 15, 2019 at 12:51 am

gaurangwalunj said:

I am formulating a floor cleaner with following ingredients.
BK50- 2.45 % w/w
Lauryl alcohol ethoxylate-5%
CAPB- 0.5%
Sodium bicarbonate-5%
EDTA-0.2%

Above formulation gives good cleaning. But I just wanted to that whether sodium bicarbonate and LAE quantities are not in excess and whether it will be too harsh on skin.

Unless that’s a rinse off formulation, it is guaranteed to leave a white residue on floors.

While 5% lauryl alcohol ethoxylate will give a nice foam and cleaning, it may leave a residue if it’s not rinsed out off floors.

No need for CAPB

Na2CO3 will leave a white residue for sure.
You can even remove, or further reduce EDTA. Being a salt it will leave a white residue too.

What’s BK50?
gaurangwalunj

Member
August 15, 2019 at 7:09 am

@Gunther@ozgirl.. thanks for your advice. @Gunther BK50- is benzoalkonium chloride 50 % solids.
gaurangwalunj

Member
August 15, 2019 at 7:37 am

@ozgirl T pH of this formulation is high 8-9. Can I use citric acid to bring to 6-7.
Pharma

Member
August 15, 2019 at 8:45 pm

You could but it would make bubbles because of the reaction of bicarbonate with acid.

For cleaning, sodium carbonate is usually employed since it’s high pH (unlike pH neutral bicarbonate). This helps removing fats and oils. If that is not needed, there is no need for high pH and you can avoid sodium (bi-)carbonate addition.

You sure you added sodium bicarbonate (usually for eating/cooking) and not sodium carbonate (usually for cleaning)? Some of their colloquial names are identical (e.g. natron) .
ozgirl

Member
August 15, 2019 at 10:04 pm

As Pharma mentioned floor cleaners and hard surface cleaners usually have a high pH to help with cleaning.

A pH of 8-9 is not considered high. As a comparison soap generally has a pH of 9-10 and is used on skin.
gaurangwalunj

Member
August 16, 2019 at 4:15 am

@ozgirl @Pharma Thanks