Where to buy "non ionic surfactant" for DIY cleaning products

Not sure that that isn't just a basic detergent like Teepol

Hmm. No detergents are ionic.

have a look here:

Yes, I suspect it's a detergent that works at neutral pH, is non-toxic, and won't leave a residue when the water evaporates.

As your link shows there's quite a few possibilities, so I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions for something that works well for this sort of application.

Thanks for the link though - this is the sort of information I'm looking for as opposed to the clapham omnibus answer like "add some washing up liquid" (which might work but is probably non-ideal).

This might be close, VWP - very powerful stuff.

yes. Sort of thing you get in car screenwash...or any handwash style product. Does it have to be anionic?

Washing up liquid has too many other things in it - mind you my favourite hand cleaner used to be Fairy liquid and paraffin... cheap form of Swarfega...

Oh this might do you

Unfortunately not - the active ingredient in VWP is Sodium Hypochlorite which is a chlorine-based bleaching agent.

It probably also contains surfactants, but the active ingredient means it's not suitable for my purpose as chlorine is too harsh for my purposes.

A common cleaning chemical is Sodium Lauryl Sulphate, aka:

BAC is a cationic surfactant, FWIW.

Theo

Thanks. I'll look into that. I know SLS is widely used in shampoo etc.

It's widely used as a patio cleaner (stronger than that though). It seems to kill off nasties.

Another Dave

Probably not an issue in this context but SLS has now been removed from newer formulations of aqueous cream and other dermatological creams as it is now known to be a skin irritant and makes eczema worse !