Researchers used liquid chromatography involving a column packed with fibrous powders to study the detergency of sufactants when only soils were removed from a fibrous substrate into an aqueous detergent solution with no mechanical or hydrodynamic actions. An experiment determined the retention volumes of two oily soil models (C.I. Solvent Yellow 5 and C.I. Solvent Yellow 14) on two stationary phases (polyester and cellulose) as a function of the aqueous sodium dodecyl sulfate micelle concentration in the mobile phase. The application of the partition equation for the pseudophase liquid chromatography in this system determined the partition coefficients of two soil models between the fiber substrate and micelles (P(sm)), between the fiber substrate and water (P(sw)), and between the micelles and water. The P(sm) and P(sw) values were greater for polyester than for cellulose, indicating that oily soil was more difficult to remove from polyester than from cellulose. 17 refs.