Abstract
Various neutral, cationic and anionic chemicals contained in hair care products can be absorbed into hair fiber to modulate physicochemical properties such as color, strength, style and volume. For environmental safety, there is also an interest in understanding hair absorption to wide chemical pollutants. There have been very limited studies on the absorption properties of chemicals into hair. Here, an experimental and modelling study has been carried out for the hair-water partition of a range of neutral, cationic and anionic chemicals at different pH. The data showed that hair-water partition not only depends on the hydrophobicity of the chemical but also the pH. The partition of cationic chemicals to hair increased with pH and this is due to their electrostatic interaction with hair increased from repulsion to attraction. For anionic chemicals, their hair-water partition coefficients decreased with increasing pH due to their electrostatic interaction with hair decreased from attraction to repulsion. Increase in pH didn’t change the partition of neutral chemicals significantly. Based on the new physicochemical insight of the pH effect on hair-water partition, a new QSPR model has been proposed, taking into account of both the hydrophobic interaction and electrostatic interaction of chemical with hair fiber.