Germany 2

Manuel Benda (18)

City/Region: Ehningen, Baden-Württemberg E-mail: familie.benda@t-online.de Hobbies: Horse riding and politics Career: Chemist School: Albert Einstein Gymnasium

Karl-Peter Fritz (19)

City/Region: Böblingen, Baden-Württemberg E-mail: karl-peter_fritz@gmx.net Hobbies: Cycling, swimming, computing and playing the guitar Career: Engineer School: Albert Einstein Gymnasium

Peter Reinhardt (19)

City/Region: Böblingen, Baden-Württemberg E-mail: goennerbonze@online.de Hobbies: Computing, movies, swimming, boy scouts and being with friends Career: Chemist School: Albert Einstein Gymnasium

New Optical Brighteners on a Natural Basis

Karl-Peter, Manuel and Peter turned their attention to optical brighteners. Optical brighteners or rather optical bleaches, are finishes giving the effect of great whiteness and brightness because of the way in which they reflect light. The compounds contain fluorescent colourless dyes, causing more blue light to be reflected. Therefore any washing appears to be absolutely clean. They were of the opinion that detergent manufacturers do not seem care that these chemicals are not biodegradable and that they may even be carcinogenic. The boys wanted to find an alternative to the existing compounds and found various natural substances with comparable properties. They narrowed down the choice to a range of substances that are commonly found in chestnut trees and corn stalks. The ones found in the corn stalks having the advantage of being available in large quantities. They presented a new way to attain environmentally friendly clean white clothes by replacing potentially dangerous chemicals by natural substances. And in the process proved that naturally occurring compounds fulfil the same standards as the synthetically produced ones.