What are the main characteristics of Castor Oil Polyoxyethylene Ether EL-12?

Castor Oil Polyoxyethylene Ether EL-12 is a non-ionic surfactant derived from natural castor oil, with three core advantages: excellent emulsifying power, superior chemical resistance, and mild low irritation, widely used in cosmetics, pesticides, textiles, metal processing, and industrial cleaning.

Detailed Description

Castor Oil Polyoxyethylene Ether EL-12 (PEG-12 Castor Oil) is produced by addition polymerization of natural castor oil with ethylene oxide (EO=12), appearing as a light yellow to yellow transparent oily liquid. As a classic non-ionic O/W emulsifier, it can significantly reduce oil-water interfacial tension, and has efficient emulsifying effect on mineral oils, animal and vegetable oils, and various organic solvents, forming stable emulsion systems.

This product has excellent chemical stability, maintaining surface activity without attenuation in acid, alkali, and hard water media, adapting to complex working conditions. Its non-ionic nature allows it to be widely compounded with non-ionic, anionic, and cationic auxiliaries, offering high formulation flexibility to meet functional requirements in different industrial fields. At the same time, EL-12 can achieve good substrate wetting and solid particle dispersion at low concentrations, effectively improving the overall performance of the formulation.

In terms of safety and environmental protection, EL-12 is based on natural oils, with extremely low skin and eye irritation (test results show non-irritating), acute oral toxicity is practically non-toxic grade (LD50 > 5000 mg/kg), and has good biodegradability, making it an environmentally friendly product. It is non-hazardous, with a flash point above 200°C, ensuring high safety in storage and transportation.

Key Characteristics Summary

Application Suggestions

With its multifunctional properties, EL-12 performs particularly well in the following scenarios:

• Cosmetics and Personal Care: As a solubilizer and emulsifier for creams, lotions, makeup removers, and bath products, providing a delicate skin feel and stable emulsifying structure, especially suitable for formulations requiring high mildness.
• Pesticide Formulations: As an efficient emulsifier for emulsifiable concentrates (EC) and emulsions in water (EW), improving the thermodynamic stability and field dilution emulsification performance, enhancing the wetting and spreading ability of the spray liquid.
• Textile Auxiliaries: Used in spinning oils, soft finishing agents, and high-temperature leveling agents, imparting smoothness and antistatic properties to fibers.
• Metalworking Fluids: Suitable for semi-synthetic and emulsified cutting fluids and grinding fluid formulations, providing dual functions of emulsification and boundary lubrication.
• Industrial Cleaners: As a wetting and penetrating aid and oil emulsifier, quickly removing heavy oil stains from surfaces of metal, plastic, etc.

Precautions

• Storage temperature should be controlled at 5-40°C, avoid extreme high temperature or freezing to prevent affecting product quality.
• Keep container sealed to avoid contact with moisture and humidity, prevent moisture absorption.
• It is recommended to wear protective gloves and goggles during operation to avoid splashing contact with skin and eyes.
• Store away from incompatible materials such as strong oxidizers, strong acids, strong bases, etc.