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Substances other than detergent actives also tend to be strongly sorbed from aqueous media onto surfaces of other contiguous condensed phases.

This is particularly true of highly charged ions, especially those ions which fall into the class of polyelectrolytes.

Whereas the usual organic surface-active agent is strongly sorbed at oil - water interfaces, the highly charged ions are most strongly sorbed at interfaces between water and insoluble materials exhibiting an ionic structure ( see Table 26-2 on p. 1678 ).

Thus, for aqueous media, we can think of the idealized organic active as an oleophilic or hydrophobic surface-active agent, and of an idealized builder as a oleophobic or hydrophilic surface-active agent.