Product Application

Detergents & Soaps
Undesirable metal ions are often present in detergents containing perborates during the manufacture of soaps. Chelating agents deactivate the heavy metal ions. They are also sometimes used as builders in detergents.

Agriculture
 Every crop needs several types of nutrients. Chelated metals act as a carrier for micro nutrients, thereby ensuring the availability of trace elements for the plant under different environment conditions. Products can be applied directly onto or into the soil or in foliar sprays. High-purity metal chelates are available to meet the high demands for a smooth operation in soil less culture.

Photography
Chelating agents are used to prevent turbidity and scum formation in developing baths and to inhibit catalytic oxidation of the developer by heavy metal ions. Chelating ferric ions are used to oxidize metallic silver into soluble silver ions, which can then be washed from the film. Chelating agents act as carriers of these ferric ions and play an essential role in accelerating and fine-tuning the reactivity of these ferric ions with metallic silver.

Cleaners
Metal salts can cause scaling problems in boilers, heat exchangers and other water circulation systems usually found in the brewery, sugar and dairy industries. Chelates with all potentially harmful metal ions, dissolving existing scale and preventing new scale formation.

Textiles
During the scouring and bleaching of textile fibers, chelating agents remove and deactivate heavy metal ions that would otherwise catalyze the decomposition of the peroxide bleaching agent. They also improve the performance of the baths, where hardness ions inhibit dye penetration of the fiber.

Printing Ink
Hardness ions in water-thinned inks cause the formation of insoluble resin soaps. Discoloration may occur in offset printing due to the formation of polyvalent metal soaps. Chelating agents prevent the precipitation of metal soaps and keeps inks color-stable and free from turbidities.

Leather
Chelating agents act as metal carrier (particularly chromium and aluminum) in the tanning of hides.

Food
Heavy metal ions catalyze the degradation of vegetable oils and fats, which can cause rancidity of food and beverages. Chelating agents deactivate these undesirable metal ions, preserving the quality of the food and increasing shelf life.

Oil Industry
The presence of heavy metal ions like calcium or barium often causes scaling problems in oil wells, especially in the presence of sulfate ions. Chelating agents are used in enhanced oil recovery to re-dissolve these deposits.

Metal Plating & Electronics
Solutions containing copper ions are used in the production of printed circuit boards. Chelating agents fulfills a multiplicity of function i.e. metal carrier, accelerator in board activation, bath stabilizer and de-activator of trace metal impurities.

Mining
Chelating agents are used to selectively extract precious metals and rare earths.