• Formulating

  SLES and ALES

  Posted by nasrins on November 29, 2014 at 4:41 am

  is there any difference between these two surfactants in irritancy?

   I just read in some papers that ALES is more soluble in water in room temperatures, so for clear shampoos ALES is a better choice. however in bath temperature th solubility of boths are as the same. what about irritancy and detergency?

  nasrins replied 9 years, 3 months ago 4 Members · 9 Replies
• 9 Replies

• 

  belassi

  Member

  November 29, 2014 at 10:26 am

  I can only speak as I find. For me, SLES provides a poorer foam quality and is irritating. The ammonium salts are much superior to the sodium salts. However you must maintain pH below 7 using ammonium salts or they begin to decompose.

• 

  nasrins

  Member

  November 30, 2014 at 1:22 am

  so ALES is milder than SLES….

• 

  belassi

  Member

  November 30, 2014 at 1:42 am

  In my experience, yes. I believe the ammonium radical is generally regarded as milder.

• 

  nasrins

  Member

  December 1, 2014 at 1:48 am

  I cant find any article or paper about this…

   

• 

  belassi

  Member

  December 1, 2014 at 1:03 pm

  Exactly. I wonder why?

• 

  nasrins

  Member

  December 1, 2014 at 1:29 pm

  I dont know
  :(maybe because they are so similar.

• 

  OldPerry

  Member

  January 27, 2015 at 10:51 pm

  From a practical standpoint I never saw any difference in the formulas I worked on (both ALES and SLES).  We always used SLES formulas because ALES formulas had the potential for reacting with the steel manufacturing tanks and our production people didn’t like that.

  You can also make a perfectly clear SLES formula so clarity is not really an issue.
• 

  David

  Member

  January 29, 2015 at 10:34 pm

  only difference I hear is that ALES is far more popular in the US than in EU….

• 

  nasrins

  Member

  February 2, 2015 at 9:17 am

  thanks perry and david….

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