Nothing in this to assist in cleaner operation (6)
I believe the answer is:
vacuum
'nothing' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'to assist in cleaner operation' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'cleaner' could be 'vac' (I've seen this before) and 'vac' is located in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'in this' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for vacuum that I've seen before include "Clean" , "Does it take up" , "Nature is said to abhor this empty space" , "Entirely empty space" , "Emptiness" .)