Soap can help save water on the anvil

Water needed to wash clothes might soon be reduced thanks to researches who have made a soap whose bubbles collapse once garments are clean.

London, Aug 27 : Water needed to wash clothes might soon be reduced thanks to researches who have made a soap whose bubbles collapse once garments are clean.

The soap is the brainchild of boffins at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia.

The researchers have made a "pepfactant", which only forms bubbles under mildly alkaline conditions.

Normal detergents contain surfactant molecules, which are oil-friendly at one end to capture dirt and water-friendly at the other to pull it away.

They also tend to form bubbles, however, which require extra rinse water.

With the soap however, the rinse water will lower the alkalinity, thereby breaking the bubbles apart, and using less water to wash out the lather, reports the New Scientist.

ANI