TechNotes

Q. Is Alconox detergent compatible with phenolic resins for cleaning purposes?

A. Alconox® Powdered Precision Cleaner has been used with no reported incidents to clean phenolic resins. In literature, it is reported that phenolic resins have excellent solvent and acid resistance….

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Q. Q. We are having an issue plating aluminum on glass castings. It appears there is mold release left on the glass after the casting. The glass manufacturer recommended Alconox detergent. Is that what you would your recommend for cleaning the glass? Whatever we use, it probably needs to be a soak at a high temperature (>170°)? Is this procedure good or should we use an ultrasonic at the higher temperature?

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Q. We manufacture vitamins, which include minerals (calcium, magnesium etc.) and have found that Citranox is very effective in cleaning the residue left in our equipment. Unfortunately, we have learned that the pH of Citranox is too low for our local requirements. Do you have another detergent with a higher pH that would work equally as well?

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Q. White spots appear on our stainless steel parts the day after cleaning with Alconox. Right after we clean them, they are dry and visually clean. So, is this next-day residue from the Alconox detergent? If not, can you tell us why this is happening? A. It is fairly unlikely that visually clean parts have Alconox residues suddenly appearing the next day.  In addition to Alconox being free rinsing, any residue that did not get rinsed for whatever reason, would be visible fairly immediately.

Most people in similar situations, even though the parts appear “dry and visually clean,” find that the spots are from water.

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Q. We need to remove perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctyl sulfonate (PFOS) from laboratory glassware and stainless steel. Since they are inorganic residues, we’re using acidic cleaners, but are not finding them as effective as we expected. Any recommendations?
A. PFOS and PFOA are polar, anionic surfactants. They will best be cleaned by a high-emulsifying, anionic-surfactant-containing cleaner that can make mixed micelles to efficiently remove these residues from surfaces….

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Q. Is it possible to prolong the bath life of Alconox?

A. Yes. Start out with a stronger Alconox concentration. If using a 1% solution, use a 2% or possibly even 3% solution. After 1.5 weeks, add another 1.5% Alconox to the bath, especially if there has been make-up water added because of drag-out and evaporation. This regimen should allow successful cleaning for up to 3 weeks. It is not recommended trying to run an Alconox bath beyond 3 weeks, as these baths are prone to starting to grow microbes. Keep the bath covered when not in use and change out the bath every 3 weeks.

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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?

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Nonionic Liquinox likely contains extremely trace levels 1,4-Dioxane, but anionic Alconox is very unlikely to contain 1-4 dioxane. Sometimes people inadvertently refer to Liquinox as Alconox because it is made by Alconox, inc.

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