Have you ever wondered how a cup of detergent cleans soiled jeans, towels, socks, and other articles in your wash, or how cleaning fluid at the dry cleaner whisks away that grease stain from your suit? And why are hair spray,vinegar, club soda, and baking soda surprisingly effective dirt and stain removers in an emergency? The answers lie both in the chemical properties of various types of dirt and stains and in the ways that the cleaning agents chemically interact with them.
Dirt and stains typically consist of particles, such as minerals from soil, protein and other organic matter from living things, or bits of black carbon. The particles are trapped on cloth fibers by grease and oil, which cannot be dissolved in water. Anything that can loosen the grease and oil from the fibers and disperse (scatter) these substances in the wash water or dry-cleaning solution will remove the dirt and stains.
