Surfactants Detergents contain a basic cleaning agent called a surfactant. It is also called a surface-active agent. Surfactants are molecules that implant themselves in the dirt and pry it away from the material. They then surround the material and water then rinses them away. Surfactants lower water s surface tension, which increases it s wetting ability.
Surface tension is the force that keeps water molecules together.
They can also help detergent make lather and suds. Contrary to popular belief, the cleaning ability of detergents has very little to do with lather and suds. Bleaches, fabric brightners, and stabilizers are of agents most detergents contain besides surfactants. There is also an agent that keeps dirt that has already been removed from coming back. That agent is called antiredeposition.