Question

How does the branching of hydrocarbon chains of synthetic detergents affect their biodegradability?
(A) More branching leads to biodegradability
(B) More branching leads to non-biodegradability
(C) No effect
(D) None of these

Answer 1

Hint : In order to solve this question we must first know what a synthetic detergent is. It is any synthetic material other than soap which is an effective cleanser and also works equally well in both hard or soft water as a surface-active agent. By biodegradable material we mean a material which can be decomposed by bacteria or any other natural organisms and not be adding to pollution.

Complete Step By Step Answer:
Detergents having highly branched hydrocarbon chains thereby causing pollution in rivers. The reason being that side chains can stop bacteria from attacking and also from breaking the chains.
Thus, lesser the branching of hydrocarbon chains of synthetic detergents more is the biodegradability that is the detergents with long straight hydrocarbon chains are more easily degraded than those having branched hydrocarbon chains.
Since the hydrocarbon chains are unbranched which means the straight chains are more prone to attack by bacteria, therefore in most of the detergents used these days, the branching is kept to minimum so that the detergents become easily biodegradable.
Applications of synthetic detergents are:
It is used as a biological reagent.
In array products, a soapless cleanser is used.
It is used in clothes washing and as a fuel additive.
Hence, option B is correct which states that more branching leads to non-biodegradability.

Note :
Synthetic detergent is a non-soap cleanser which exerts its impact by reducing the surface tension of an aqueous cleaning mixture. Biodegradable wastes can be degraded by various natural factors like microbes such as bacteria, fungi and abiotic elements like temperature, UV, oxygen. Some examples of such wastes are food materials, kitchen wastes, and other natural wastes.