Quality assessment of baby wet wipes

Abstract

A wet wipe is a commercial product made of a fibrous substrate impregnated with a lotion that often comes folded and individually wrapped for convenience. The present work relates to wet wipes’ composition to clean the baby’s body. Wet wipes were produced from two spunlace nonwoven fabrics consisting of polyester/viscose and a wetting solution. Objective performance evaluation was carried out to determine the efficiency of the wipes for manufacturing and end uses. The lotion formula comprising surfactants, a solubilizer, preservative compounds, perfumes, and mainly purified water is selected to deliver the intended benefits of a baby wet wipe. Besides, physical, mechanical characteristics, and moisture management parameters of the wet wipe fabrics were measured. Optimal lotion (oil–water emulsion) stirring conditions were illustrated using optical microscopy. Lotion foamability appears as an undesirable phenomenon upon the manufacturing of the wet wipe. A mixture design, an extreme vertices design, was used to study the influence of the compounds on the foam volume. The relative contribution of each compound in the lotion to generate bath foam was discussed. Because wet media are more effective than dry media for surface cleaning, the optimum wet pick-up ensuring the best wiping efficiency about of 83.2% was found to be about 3 g of lotion for 1 g of fabric. Assuming that a wipe sample could be performed in less than 3 min, it was also confirmed that the developed wipe remains effective with a moisture content of 242% and can be comparable with other commercial wipes.