Cleaning Aluminum with Alconox
Q. Which Alconox cleaners can be used on Aluminum?
A. The Alconox brand cleaners recommended for cleaning aluminum are Alconox, Liquinox, Tergazyme, Alcojet, Alcotabs, Detojet, Citranox, Luminox, Citrajet, Solujet and Tergajet. Detergent 8 is not recommended for cleaning aluminum. Aluminum forms a natural passive layer in air that allows it to be successfully cleaned without adverse reactions with cleaner. A passive layer forms in under an hour, provided there is no oily film present. Once the passive layer is formed, the recommended Alconox brand cleaners can be used to clean the aluminum at concentrations of less than 5% at 90 deg C or less for up to one hour.
Is Alconox detergent the same as Liquinox detergent?
Q. Is the Alconox powder equivalent to the Liquinox liquid? If these are the same could you please provide me with some sort of documentation saying that Alconox is the powdered form of Liquinox and that they are interchangeable?
Maximum Wash Temperature for Liquinox
Q. What is the maximum wash temperature for Liquinox? At this maximum temperature is there an accelerated breakdown of detergent?
A. Liquinox is heat stable all the way to boiling at standard temperature and pressure conditions. From a practical standpoint, there are some detergency mechanisms that begin to break down mechanistically as you approach boiling. Emulsions begin to become less stable as you approach within a couple degrees of boiling. If emulsifying is not a critical cleaning mechanism, this may not be relevant to you.
Medical Device Cleaning – Automated Machine Detergent
Q. We are looking to use Liquinox in an automated cleaning machine. The cleaner would be agitated ultrasonically and pumped to/from the storage tank by magnetic drive pumps. We are worried that the Liquinox will foam during the transfer by pump. Is this a valid concern? If so, is there an alternative cleaner that we could use in place of the Liquinox?
Cleaning Glassware Exposed to Sea Water
Q. What is the proper way to clean lab glassware that has been exposed to sea water?
A. Sea water contains a large and variable quantity of salts, biological and organic residues. Lab glassware needs to be free of any of these residues to avoid interference in research involving sea water. Sea water would not particularly present challenges beyond the normal array of residues that lab glassware sees in the wide variety of types of lab glassware that Alconox, Inc. laboratory detergents are used to clean. A standard cleaning protocol will work fine.
