How do I lower the surface tension of water without using a detergent?

Question

For many years I've used a Rainbow vacuum, which uses a reservoir of water as the filter. While I'm quite pleased with it, I've found that when trying to vacuum cement dust or wood ash not all of the particles are captured in the water. I believe a remedy to this would be to lower the surface tension of the water. Yes, I can always be sure to use hot water, but I'd like to go further. Obviously I can't use a suds-producing detergent because the vacuum produces lots of turbulence in the reservoir.

What commonly available chemicals could I use that would give me the greatest reduction of surface tension? So far I've tried to research trisodium phosphate, sodium carbonate, and a product called Haemo-Sol which is a non-ionic surfactant... but I can't find surface tension numbers for any of these much less the concentration to use.

The manufacturer suggests adding a tablespoon of vinegar, which I think is rather lame.

Can anyone make a good guess or point me in the right direction?

Answer 1

Your goal is to reduce the surface tension of the water so that it does not support the formation of large bubbles or inhibit the whetting of the dirt particles.

When the bubbles are small, the dust inside will be more likely to make contact with the liquid surface of the bubble within the lifetime of the bubble. Also, when it does make contact, it will be much more likely to irreversibly adhere to the water if you have reduced the surface tension.

The word "surfactant" is a blend of "surface active agent"$^1$, and this is what you need to interfere with the surface tension of your water. I believe that you may have written off detergents too hastily. I think the best solution will be to add a small amount of laundry detergent, or possibly non-foaming carpet cleaner. Each of these products are designed to foam to a lesser degree than, say, dishwashing detergent or most hand soaps.

I suspect that you will have to experiment a bit, but that something on the order of a single cc per liter may be sufficient to increase the effectiveness of dust removal without causing excessive suds. Your goal should be to see how much detergent you can add without adversely affecting your vacuum, and decide whether this has resulted in a decreased throughput of dust particles.

As to your title question, "How do I lower the surface tension of water without using a detergent?", what I'm really saying is 1) that most anything that does what you want could probably be deemed a detergent and 2) that a detergent is likely the most practical solution to your problem.

1) Surfactants and Interfacial Phenomena, Fourth Edition, Rosen and Kunjappu, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 2012

Answer 2

Vinegar does reduce the surface tension quite a bit. If you put a tablespoon or two of vinegar in a bowl and then run water into it, the bubbles that form on the surface persist much longer than they do if there's no vinegar present.

I suggest reconsidering your rejection of the vinegar recommendation.

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Beyond that, airhuff's right -- you're searching for something that will preferentially accumulate at the air-water interface. Air is far less polar that water, which means that you need a chemical that has both polar and nonpolar characteristics. No small inorganic solutes possess appreciable nonpolar regions, and once you tack on a nonpolar tail of any substantial length, you're back under the umbrella of detergents/surfactants.

The foaming potential is absolutely a function of concentration, as airhuff says, so it's a matter of finding the right number of drops per gallon to achieve the balance of properties you're seeking.

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UPDATE, 22 Oct 2023: As a practical example, Shin and Liu (2004) controlled the void size in bubble-microtemplated electrodeposited copper foams by tuning the acetic acid (vinegar) concentration.

Answer 3

Amway makes a product called L.O.C. It is somewhat of a detergent, However, it has been sold as a product that "makes water, wetter". It has been added (as I have been told) to chemicals in crop dusters. It allows the chemicals to spread over the leaves, giving greater surface area of coverage because of loss of surface tension.

Product: L.O.C.™ Multi-Purpose Cleaner (click "Ingredients") and MSDS

Answer 4

Basically, the surface tension of water is originated when the water molecules which are dipolar, and their polar interactions exist due to the residual forces which exist at the surfaces. The dipoles in the bulk are counterbalanced by the dipoles of the water molecules placed nearby at a Lennard Jones distance and hence the global potential energy is higher as no residual negative or positive charges exist in the bulk. The dipoles are highly vibrant causing rotational and vibrational motions or oscillations leading to translations motions. Thereby at air and water interfaces, these dipoles become most active and the vibrant activities of the dipoles which remain at air phase are not counterbalanced contrary to the activities of the dipoles which are in contact of the other water molecules. Thus, the downward pull of the molecules is generated that causes a tension or surface tension. Thus, the dipolar forces of water molecules at the air-water interface differs from the dipolar forces which are with bulk water molecules. Stronger dipolar activities develop higher surface tension. Thus, the dipolar forces which face air having different gases and particulate matters are not strongly adhered to either whereas the dipolar forces which face similar water molecules become stabilized. The dipoles exposed towards air are active as these are not optimized and hence create tension at interface, but they could not enter the bulk due to stronger optimization which cause exceptionally stronger friction. So remained confined to the surface causing the surface tension. This difference of the dipolar forces causes friccohesity chemistry. The surface tension creation is example of friccohesity chemistry because the frictional forces and cohesive forces remain operative during the surface tension creation. Now any molecules which weaken the dipolar forces reduce the surface forces. For example, apart from surfactant, the proteins, alcohols, dendrimers, webdrimers, graphene, graphene oxide, adhesives, fluorescent dyes, gums, aloe vera, phytochemicals, decrease the surface tension of the water.

Answer 5

Surface tension and viscosity work hand in hand, there is hairline to distinguish cohesion and adhesion of solvent with self or with ingredient molecules. The hydrogen bonded water with dipolar interactions generate tendency to cohere the energy at surface as dipoles remain unengaged generating friccohesity resonating energy transfer (FRET). The air does not constitute any fixed surface unlike a molecules so these dipole cohere at water surface. However, these dipoles are balanced in the bulk with no tendency to cohere as the similar water molecules are present. But when different molecules like drug, detergent, antioxidant-curcumin, are dispersed in water, then the water dipoles cohere with these molecules noted as different molecules. The water dipoles before cohering to different molecules get disrupted the hydrogen bonding which was attained due to coherence of the similar water molecules. Thus the coherence or cohesive forces with different molecules is noted as adherence or adhesion which resist rotational,vibrataional, and translational motions of the different molecules could be noted as ingredient molecules when the nanoformulations are made. Thus an adhesion generates a frictional force that increases shear or viscosity and decreases a cohesion or the surface tension. Therefore the surface tension and viscosity work hand in hand, increasing or decreasing either surface tension or viscosity, a new and novel interface noted as friccohesity is originated and measured with survismeter. Genesis of friccohesity is Fric is derived from frictional and the cohesity from cohesive forces. Truly the chemistry of friccohesity most fabulously generate the molecular economy which resolve the surface tension and viscosity related chemical processes like cosmetics, electroplating, coating, thin film. For these a continuity and monolayer adhesion is essential. The continuity is attained by moderating both the surface tension and viscosity. These all the issues are explained in the book.
https://www.cambridgescholars.com/product/978-1-5275-9363-3

Answer 6

Ethanol, ionic liquids, dyes, protein, reduce surface tension of water, however these chemicals increase viscosity so it is better to deal with friccohesity. The surface tension and viscosity determinations need density data measurements but friccohesity does not. The deepest mechanistic changes are accurately resolved by friccohesity. Acetic acid, sodium acetate and others reduce the surface tension of water.