Diffusiophoresis found to be critical factor for getting clothes clean

A team of researchers with members from the University of Hawaii, the Unilever company and Princeton University has found that the critical factor involved in cleaning clothes in a washing machine is a phenomenon called diffusiophoresis, a type of diffusion caused by electric fields, combined with chemophoresis, diffusion caused by differences in concentration gradients. They have published their findings in the journal Physical Review Letters.