Ece Turhal

Investigating algamide diethanolamine as an environmentally sustainable additive to cleansing products

Started Dec. 30, 2020

Abstract or project description

The majority of cosmetic and cleaning products contains coconut and palm oils, whose cultivation and production processes accelerate global deforestation. One of the main additives is cocamide diethanolamine (cocamide DEA), and this project aims to evaluate the algae-based analog of cocamide DEA (preliminarily named algamide DEA) as a greener alternative. First, algamide DEA will be synthesized following the same method for cocamide DEA synthesis. Then, viscosity and foaming of the cleansing products made from varying diethanolamides will be measured. This effort will provide insight into how the fatty acid structure of diethanolamides affect the physical properties of commercial cleansing products.