PLURAFAC LF 431

PLURAFAC LF 431 is a special nonionic surfactant that keeps the formulation stable even in strong alkaline systems and makes the cleaning process more controlled with its low-foaming character.
With its ability to spread quickly on surfaces, suppress foam, and support rinsing efficiency, PLURAFAC LF 431 delivers a quiet but effective performance in industrial cleaning applications.
The most valuable feature of PLURAFAC LF 431 is that, under demanding cleaning conditions, it maintains the working power, flow, and surface contact of the formulation instead of creating unnecessary foam.

CAS Number: 111190-40-0

Synonyms: PLURAFAC LF 431, PLURAFAC LF 431, BASF PLURAFAC LF 431, Alcohol alkoxylate, End-capped alcohol alkoxylate, Fatty alcohol alkoxylate, Alkoxylated fatty alcohol, Nonionic alcohol alkoxylate, Nonionic surfactant, Low-foaming nonionic surfactant, Low-foam surfactant, Foam-control surfactant, Foam-suppressing surfactant, Alkaline cleaning surfactant, Caustic-stable surfactant, Industrial cleaning surfactant, Institutional cleaning surfactant, Hard-surface cleaning surfactant, Machine-cleaning surfactant, Rinse-support surfactant 

PLURAFAC LF 431 is a low foaming nonionic surfactant.
PLURAFAC LF 431 consists of alkoxylated, predominantly unbranched fatty alcohols, and contains higher alkene oxides alongside ethylene oxide.
PLURAFAC LF 431 has a viscosity of approximately 45 mPa·s at 23°C.

PLURAFAC LF 431 is a low-foaming nonionic surfactant based on end-capped alcohol alkoxylate chemistry.
PLURAFAC LF 431 is designed for cleaning formulations that require strong foam control, good wetting ability, and reliable performance under alkaline conditions.

PLURAFAC LF 431 is especially useful in industrial and institutional cleaning systems where excessive foam can reduce washing, spraying, rinsing, or draining efficiency.
PLURAFAC LF 431's good caustic stability makes it suitable for alkaline detergents, hard-surface cleaners, machine-cleaning products, and demanding cleaning applications.

Appli­ca­tions of PLURAFAC LF 431:
PLURAFAC LF 431 is used in alkaline cleaning formulations where foam control and caustic stability are important.
PLURAFAC LF 431 is suitable for industrial cleaners, institutional cleaners, bottle-washing detergents, food-industry cleaning products, and machine-cleaning systems.

PLURAFAC LF 431 can be used as a foam-control surfactant in highly alkaline cleaners, especially where washing, spraying, rinsing, or draining must continue without excess foam.
PLURAFAC LF 431 is also useful in hard-surface cleaners and process-cleaning formulations that require stable wetting performance under demanding alkaline conditions.
PLURAFAC LF 431 under foam-control use, and BTC Europe notes that PLURAFAC LF grades are used as foam suppressants and additives in highly alkaline industrial cleaners.

The PLURAFAC LF types are com­pat­ible with other non­ionic sur­fac­tants such as our Luten­sol® A, AO, AT, F, GD, ON, XA, XL, XP and TO types and our
Plu­ronic® PE and RPE types.

PLURAFAC LF 431 can also be used in com­bi­na­tion with anionic (Luten­sit® A types) and cat­ionic sur­fac­tants (Lutensit TC-KLC types).
PLURAFAC LF 431 do not react with cal­cium, mag­ne­sium or any of the other cat­ions in hard water, nor with sol­u­ble alkali salts, anionic poly­mers such as car­boxyme­thyl cel­lu­lose, or poly­car­box­y­lates such as our Sok­a­lan® CP, HP, PM and PA types.

PLURAFAC LF 431s in the range that ter­mi­nate in a hydroxyl group are resist­ant to for­mal­de­hyde, chlo­rine com­pounds, phos­phates, sil­i­cates, soda ash, hydrochloric acid, phos­phoric acid, cit­ric acid and most other acids and alka­lis.
This also applies to PLURAFAC LF 1430.

Those that ter­mi­nate in an alkyl group are resist­ant to strong alka­lis such as the alka­lis used in deter­gents for bot­tle-wash­ing machines.
The hydroxyl-ter­mi­nated PLURAFAC LF types can grad­u­ally turn yel­low over pro­longed peri­ods at ele­vated tem­per­a­tures in mod­er­ately alka­line for­mu­lations, but this has no effect on their deter­gency or foam­ing char­ac­ter­is­tics.

Yel­low­ing can often be avoided in pow­der dish­washer deter­gents, etc., by spray­ing the sur­fac­tants onto the phos­phates or carbonates before add­ing the other ingre­dients such as sodium met­a­sil­i­cate, sodium hydrox­ide and a sol­u­ble dich­lo­rois­oc­yan­u­rate.
All of the hydroxyl-ter­mi­nated PLURAFAC LF types are resist­ant to acids, but PLURAFAC LF 220, LF 221 and LF 711 are the most suit­able prod­ucts for use in strongly acidic solu­tions.

Foam­ing:
Non­ionic sur­fac­tants are renowned for their high deter­gency, wet­ting power and soil-dis­pers­ing capac­ity, but the dis­tin­guish­ing fea­ture of the PLURAFAC LF types is that they form very lit­tle foam.
Some of them can even be employed to inhibit foam for­ma­tion.

Foam­ing can often be a prob­lem in clean­ing pro­cesses that involve inten­sive mechan­i­cal action.
PLURAFAC LF 431 is dif­fi­cult to pre­dict the foam­ing beha­vi­our of sur­factants in advance with stan­dard test meth­ods because of the influ­ence of the type of soil, the type of machin­ery, dif­fer­ent tem­per­a­ture set­tings and the effects of the other ingre­dients in the for­mu­la­tion, etc.

The results obtained by the beater method described in EN 12728, Part 1, or the Ross-Miles method described in DIN 53902, Part 2, and ASTM D 1175-53, have to be sub­stan­tiated with meth­ods that cor­re­spond more closely to real con­di­tions.
One method of test­ing foam for­ma­tion which closely cor­re­sponds to the con­di­tions encoun­tered in prac­tice is to meas­ure the level of foam pro­duced in a dish­washer.

The rotat­ing spray arm is slowed down by foam, and the higher the rate of rev­o­lu­tion, the less foam is present.
Mix­tures of 5 parts of PLURAFAC LF and 95 parts of builder con­sist­ing of 50 % sodium met­a­sil­i­cate, 45 % pen­ta­so­dium tri­phos­phate and 5 % soda ash were tested at a con­cen­tra­tion of 20 g/l.

Foam­ing was encour­aged by add­ing 10 cm3 of egg.
This method gives a reli­able indi­ca­tion of the lev­els of foam­ing that can be expected in prac­tice.

Areas of Appli­ca­tion:
The PLURAFAC LF types are very low-foam­ing non­ionic sur­fac­tants.
PLURAFAC LF 431 is used in deter­gents and clean­ers in which foam­ing has to be kept to a min­i­mum.

PLURAFAC LF 431 can be used in pow­der, paste and liq­uid prod­ucts.
The most impor­tant prod­ucts in this cat­e­gory are deter­gents and rinse aids for domes­tic and com­mer­cial dish­wash­ers, deter­gents for bot­tle-wash­ing machines, and clean­ers for brew­er­ies and dair­ies.

Some of the PLURAFAC LF types can also be used as anti­foams and sur­fac­tants in laun­dry deter­gents.
The PLURAFAC LF types also have appli­ca­tions in clean­ers and degreas­ers for the metal indus­try, in cos­met­ics, and in the oil indus­try.

Chem­i­cal Nature of PLURAFAC LF 431:
The PLURAFAC LF types are low-foam­ing non­ionic sur­fac­tants.
PLURAFAC LF 431 con­sist of alkox­y­lated, pre­dom­i­nantly ­unbranched fatty alco­hols, and they con­tain higher alkene oxides along­side eth­y­lene oxide.

The fatty alco­hol chains of PLURAFAC LF 131, LF 132, LF 231, LF 431 and LF 1530 ter­mi­nate in an alkyl group.
PLURAFAC LF 731, 7319 and PLURAFAC LF 1430 are spe­cial alkox­y­late.

Prop­er­ties of PLURAFAC LF 431:
The PLURAFAC LF types – with exemption of PLURAFAC LF 731 – are clear or slightly cloudy liq­uids.

Solubility of PLURAFAC LF 431:
The solubility of the PLURAFAC LF types increases in line with their cloud point.
Products with a cloud point below room temperature can be made to form clear solutions by adding solubilizers such as alcohols, glycols or sodium cumene sulfonate.

Viscosity of PLURAFAC LF 431:
PLURAFAC LF 431 is advisable to stir the surfactant into water when preparing aqueous solutions of PLURAFAC LF types.
The viscosity of solutions made up in the reverse order can be too high at certain concentrations.

Stability and Reactivity of PLURAFAC LF 431:

Chemical stability:
Plurafac LF 431 is stable when stored and handled under recommended conditions.

Reactivity:
No hazardous reactions are expected if the product is used and stored properly.

Conditions to avoid:
Humidity, excessive heat, and unsuitable storage conditions should be avoided.

Incompatible materials:
Caustic materials, halogens, alkalis, acids, and highly reactive chemicals should be avoided.

Hazardous decomposition products:
No hazardous decomposition products are expected under proper storage and handling conditions.

Thermal decomposition:
Thermal decomposition may occur above 300 °C.

Handling and Storage of PLURAFAC LF 431:

Handling:
Plurafac LF 431 should be handled according to good industrial hygiene and safety practices.

Safe handling:
Containers should be closed immediately after use because the product can absorb moisture from air.

Fire and explosion protection:
No special fire or explosion precautions are normally required.

Storage:
Keep the container tightly closed and stored in a cool place.

Storage temperature:
Protect from temperatures above 70 °C because product properties may change irreversibly.

First Aid Measures of PLURAFAC LF 431:

Inhalation:
Move the person to fresh air and seek medical advice if symptoms occur.

Skin contact:
Wash thoroughly with plenty of water and remove contaminated clothing.

Eye contact:
Rinse eyes immediately with running water for at least 15 minutes while keeping eyelids open, then consult an eye specialist.

Ingestion:
Rinse mouth immediately and drink 200–300 ml of water, then seek medical attention.

Medical advice:
Treat according to symptoms; no specific antidote is known.

Firefighting Measures of PLURAFAC LF 431:

Suitable extinguishing media:
Use water spray, dry powder, or foam.

Unsuitable extinguishing media:
Do not use a direct water jet.

Specific hazards:
Fire may produce harmful vapours, fumes, fog, and irritating decomposition products.

Protective equipment:
Firefighters should wear self-contained breathing apparatus and full protective clothing.

Further information:
Contaminated extinguishing water should be disposed of according to official regulations.

Accidental Release Measures of PLURAFAC LF 431:

Personal precautions:
Use personal protective clothing and keep unnecessary people away from the spill area.

Slip hazard:
Spilled product may create a high slipping risk.

Environmental precautions:
Do not allow the product to enter drains, surface water, or groundwater.

Small spills:
Absorb with sand, sawdust, or a general-purpose binder.

Large spills:
Pump off the product and place contaminated material in suitable containers for disposal.

Exposure Controls / Personal Protection of PLURAFAC LF 431:

Exposure limits:
No occupational exposure limits are known.

Respiratory protection:
Use respiratory protection if ventilation is inadequate or if aerosols are formed.

Hand protection:
Wear chemical-resistant protective gloves.

Eye protection:
Use tightly fitting chemical safety goggles.

Body protection:
Wear suitable protective clothing, apron, protective boots, or chemical-protection suit depending on exposure level.

Hygiene measures:
Do not eat, drink, smoke, or use tobacco in the work area, and wash hands after handling.

Identifiers of PLURAFAC LF 431:
Product Type: Low-foaming nonionic surfactant
CAS Number: 111190-40-0
EC Number: Not clearly assigned for this surfactant mixture

Product Number (PRD): 30044045
Product CAS Details: 111190-40-0

Properties of PLURAFAC LF 431:
Appearance: Liquid
Chemical Nature: End-capped alcohol alkoxylate
Surfactant Type: Nonionic surfactant
Foaming Behavior: Low-foaming
Viscosity: Approx. 45 mPa·s at 23 °C
Cloud Point: Not clearly specified in available product data
Solubility: Dispersible in water-based cleaning systems