Highly hard water tolerant bio-based non-ionic surfactant with strong stain removal efficiency for household cleaning

Surfactants are widely used, especially in the cleaning industry; however, most commercial options remain petrochemical-based, raising concerns due to their non-renewability, toxicity, high dosage requirements, and poor biodegradability. This has intensified the search for sustainable, eco-friendly alternatives. To achieve this appealing solution, this study designed and developed a novel N -(2-(2,3,4,5,6-pentahydroxyhexanamido)ethyl)palmitamide (PHHAEPA) bio-based non-ionic surfactant from renewable δ -gluconolactone (a sugar-based material) and methyl palmitate (derived from waste triglycerides) through a simple and efficient method. The amide intermediate and final surfactant products were structurally characterized using GC/FID, HPLC, FT-IR, 1 H NMR, and 13 C NMR spectroscopy. In additive-free systems, the PHHAEPA sugar-based surfactant decreased the surface tension of deionized water to 23.153 mN/m at a very low critical micelle concentration (CMC) of 4.559 × 10 −5  mol/L. It exhibited strong tolerance to Ca 2+ and Mg 2+ ions up to 1.0 × 10 5 and 5 × 10 4  mg/L, respectively. At 0.1 % ( w / w ), it also exhibited high cleaning efficiency, removing an average of 73 % of various stains from white cloth. Furthermore, it showed strong stabilization of oil-water Pickering emulsions, high foamability and foam stability, excellent wettability, high biodegradability, and low toxicity. These findings substantiate our hypothesis that PHHAEPA sugar-based non-ionic surfactant in additive-free formulations represents a safe and sustainable alternative to petrochemical ones, exhibiting high stain-removal efficiency at low dosages even under harsh environmental conditions.