Foam can be disruptive in manufacturing or using powdered products such as detergents or building materials. That’s why defoamers are added to prevent the formation of air bubbles and destabilize existing foam. Processing powdered ingredients or materials requires powdered defoamer formulations as powders are easier to blend with other powders than with liquid components. But it is a challenge to transform defoamer oils into dry formulations.
Silica turns defoaming oil preparations into powder
An easy solution is adding highly absorptive SIPERNAT® carrier silica. Their sponge-like porous structure sucks up any kind of liquid due to high capillary forces. Liquids are turned into powders. This so called “dry powder” effect allows them to be added very easily and homogeneously to dry, powdered preparations. As the absorbed liquids are typically only weakly bound to silica, they are released from the carrier and unfold their defoaming effect when processing the materials.
Powder Defoamer Use Cases
- Building & Construction: With building materials such as cement, mortar, leveling compound, screed or tile adhesive, every air bubble is a defect that disrupts the subsequent work steps and may even impair the stability of the construction. It needs defoamers to prevent the formation of bubbles and ensure smooth processing of the compound. Silica enables the formulation of efficient powder defoamers for powdered or granulated building materials.
- Home Care Formulations: Foam is likely to form wherever surfactants are present. Excessive foaming impairs the handling of cleaners and leaves a greasy film on the surface. And in industrial production processes, foam formation may result in expensive production shutdowns when processing powders and liquids for home care detergents. It makes fluids more difficult to handle, reduces the filling volume in bottles and containers of home care products, and impedes the washing process in washing machines. Powder defoamers are therefore indispensable as processing aids and as additives in many home care formulations.