Complexing agents are substances that are essential in key areas of industrial production and are used just as much in textile finishing as in the manufacture of printed circuit boards.

Indeed, for cleaning, photographic, cosmetic and paper products, complexing agents are virtually indispensable. The special ability of complexing agents is the ability to form stable water-soluble complexes (molecules) with polyvalent metal ions. The result: The complexed metal ion is masked, allowing its physical and chemical characteristics and therefore its performance to be changed selectively.

The resulting complexes are stable and not readily biodegradable. Hence, the quantity applied is reduced, more of the applied material is being recycled and new methods are used for the microbiological degradation.