{"id":9879,"date":"2022-02-10T09:34:52","date_gmt":"2022-02-10T09:34:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/a-washing-powder-that-leaves-clothes-white-as-snow"},"modified":"2022-02-10T09:50:06","modified_gmt":"2022-02-10T09:50:06","slug":"a-washing-powder-that-leaves-clothes-white-as-snow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/a-washing-powder-that-leaves-clothes-white-as-snow","title":{"rendered":"A washing powder that leaves clothes white as snow"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>LEHAKOE Washing Powder is, perhaps, the only powder that can leave your clothes as white as snow. Lehakoe is a new product manufactured by a National University of Lesotho (NUL) Chemical Technology student, Taelo T\u0161olele.<\/p>\n

It was years in the making and it is now time to tell you about it. When tested against existing washing powders, including some of the best and well-known brands from South Africa, Lehakoe goes toe-to-toe, fire-for-fire with them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe tested it against four other well-known brands and this is what we found: Lehakoe had the second best foam stability, matched others in good PH, was the best in Matter Insoluble in Alcohol (MIA) and Matter Insoluble in Water (MIW) and had the best moisture content, among other properties,\u201d T\u0161olele said.<\/p>\n

The tests were made using the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) guidelines. It started a long time ago when T\u0161olele and his friends were just chilling in a laboratory.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs our conversation went on and on, we started questioning the wisdom of being educated while we were unable to produce anything at all in Lesotho,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI and my friends were like \u2013 this can\u2019t go on and on forever.<\/p>\n

\u201d That was a moment of inspiration.<\/p>\n

So it immediately dawned on him and his friends that they were sitting over a treasure of unimaginable knowledge which they were yet to learn to put into tangible products.<\/p>\n

The months and months of learning the secrets of Chemistry and Chemical Technology, it occurred to them, was not so they could go and speak \u201cgood\u201d English to impress the society out there (as was the case with previous generations).<\/p>\n

Rather, it was so that they could solve the problems of society. This powerful feeling threw them deep into the chemistry laboratories and the chemical storages.<\/p>\n

By the way, the NUL Chemistry Department has a fear-inspiring collection of chemicals, many of whose names you could never even imagine they existed at all!<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were plunged into research and experimentation. Little did we know that we were beginning a journey that would take more than two years to where we are,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI learned deep lessons, one of which is the fact that making a product worthy of reaching the markets was not for the faint-hearted.<\/p>\n

\u201d It\u2019s one thing to do experiments in the lab but, \u201ctrying to make real-world products is a different animal altogether. \u201d<\/p>\n

After plenty of experiments, something came out\u2014what looked like a washing powder. They were eager to test it. It fell far short. \u201cOf course it could wash.<\/p>\n

However, it produced unbearable smell (fumes) in the process. \u201d His diagnosis is that this could have been due to their attempts in making \u201csurfactants.<\/p>\n

\u201d Before we dig deeper, let\u2019s learn a thing or two about the chemical nature of the washing powder.<\/p>\n

There are numerous things that make a typical washing powder which, scientifically, we call a detergent. However, two main components stand out: builders and surfactants.<\/p>\n

To understand builders, you need to know a thing or two about hard water. Hard water is that water which tastes salty (because it may have some ions of elements such as Calcium and Magnesium).<\/p>\n

Now use soap to wash yourself in that water and you will realise that your waste water appears too dirty (it forms a crust). That crust is the result of the soap combining with the ions.<\/p>\n

However, when you use washing powder (detergent) in the same water, you don\u2019t see the crust forming. \u201cThat is because washing powder, as opposed to soap, has builders. The work of builders is to combine nicely with the ions such that they don\u2019t interfere with the cleaning abilities of the powder.<\/p>\n

That is why you won\u2019t see a crust forming in water when you use washing powders and that is what separates soaps from washing powders (detergents) although we use the same name in our language (sesepa).<\/p>\n

\u201d Now, surfactants are even more interesting. They are chemicals with heads and tails. Their heads always attach themselves to water and their tails always attach themselves to the dirt in your clothes.<\/p>\n

When you clean, water pulls the head of the surfactant, the head pulls the tail and the tail pulls the dirt. Yeah, that process of washing, which you probably do every week, is not as simple as you thought it was\u2014 after all!<\/p>\n

Back to the experiments, so these guys attempted to make their own builders and surfactants but \u201calthough we were a bit successful, it seemed that we couldn\u2019t get the acid-base balance right, hence the fuming smell\u201d.<\/p>\n

After months and months of trials, T\u0161olele went back to the drawing board and experimented with all kinds of chemicals until he got it right. Then he tested this washing powder against four other leading South Africa-based washing powders using ISO standards and the Lehakoe Washing powder performed excellently well. In the end, we the happy consumers, can\u2019t wait to try Lehakoe on our clothes (le etsa hlokohloko ea lekoeba).<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Lesotho<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. LEHAKOE Washing Powder is, perhaps, the only powder that can leave your clothes as white as snow. Lehakoe is a new product manufactured by a National University of Lesotho (NUL) Chemical Technology student, Taelo T\u0161olele. It was years in the making and it is now time to tell you about it. When […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":9878,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,9,16],"tags":[233,246,245,1500],"class_list":["post-9879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-miscellaneous","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-lesotho","tag-washing"],"yoast_head":"\nA washing powder that leaves clothes white as snow - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"LEHAKOE Washing Powder is, perhaps, the only powder that can leave your clothes as white as snow. 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