Surfactants are the most versatile products of the chemical industry. They are utilized in every industrial area ranging from household detergents to drilling muds and food items to pharmaceuticals.
The term surfactant comes from the word surface active agent. They are amphiphilic molecules and are thus absorbed in the air-water interface. At the interface, they align themselves so that the hydrophobic part is in the air and the hydrophilic part is in water. This will cause a decrease in surface or interfacial tensions.
Surfactant basics
As said, surfactants are amphiphilic molecules that have hydrophobic and hydrophilic parts. The hydrophobic tail is a hydrocarbon, fluorocarbon, or siloxane. Surfactants are typically classified based on their polar head as the hydrophobic tails are often similar. If the head group has no charge, the surfactant is called non-ionic. If the head group has a negative or positive charge, it is called anionic or cationic, respectively. If it contains both positive and negative groups, then the surfactant is called zwitterionic.
Anionic and nonionic surfactants are by far the most used surfactant types in the industry. Anionic surfactant finds use, especially in cleaning products like laundry detergents and shampoos. Nonionic surfactants on the other hand are often used as wetting agents and in the food industry. Both cationic and zwitterionic surfactants are more for special use as they are more expensive to produce.
Because of their amphiphilic nature, surfactants absorb at the air-water or oil-water interface. At the interface, surfactants align themselves so that the hydrophobic part is in the air (or oil) and the hydrophilic part in water.
For simplicity, let’s consider only the air-water interface. The cohesive forces between the water molecules are very strong making the surface tension of water high. As surfactants absorb they break these interactions. The intermolecular forces between surfactant and water molecule are much lower than between two water molecules and thus surface tension will decrease. When the surfactant concentration is high, they form micelles. The point at which micelles are formed is called critical micelle concentration.
The main purpose of the surfactants is to decrease the surface and interfacial tension and stabilize the interface. Without surfactants washing laundry would be difficult and many food products like mayonnaise and ice cream would not exist. Thus optimization of surfactants for different applications is highly important and surface and interfacial tension measurements have a key role in it.
If you would like to read more about how surfactants are utilized in the industry, please download the overview below.
Have you ever used a product like soap and wondered how it actually works? Why does soap bubble up and separate when it interacts with water? How does it clean oil and grime off of dishes?
There are ingredients in those products that have the qualities of a property known as a surfactant that allows the soap to bubble and perform its function.
Surfactants are actually used in a variety of different products, many of which are common household items. But just what is a surfactant, and what does it do? What functions does it serve?
We are here to explain exactly what a surfactant is, how it works, and some common examples of surfactants in the world.
A surfactant (aka a surface-active agent) is a substance that, when added to a liquid, reduces its surface tension, thereby increasing its spreading and wetting properties.
These are substances that create self-assembled molecular clusters called micelles in a solution (water or oil phase) and adsorb to the interface between a solution and a different phase (gases/solids).
To show these two physical properties, a surfactant must have a chemical structure with two different functional groups with different affinities within the same molecule.
A common example of this in practice is a detergent. When a detergent is added to a liquid, it causes a reaction that reduces the surfactant’s surface tension, which increases its spreading and wetting properties. Other examples of surfactants are germicides, fungicides, and insecticides.
Surfactants work to disperse something in order to spread the material in an even and level place. The surface-active molecule of the surfactant must be partly hydrophilic (water-soluble) and partly lipophilic (soluble in lipids or oils).
Think back to the detergent example we discussed. When the detergent is exposed to water, it soaps up and spreads within the water while working with the lipids within the formula.
It concentrates at the interfaces between bodies or droplets of water and those of oil or lipids to act as an emulsifying agent or foaming agent. So, when the detergent hits the water, it begins to soap up to its interactions.
Other surfactants that are more lipophilic and less hydrophilic may be used as defoaming agents or as demulsifiers.
Surfactants are used for many purposes, including:
These can also include products like herbicides, pesticides, and soaps. Most surfactants used in pest control are non-ionic, meaning they will not bubble up (like dish and laundry soaps do).
Another category surfactants are used in is the beauty space. Certain products geared towards skin and hair can be surfactants, such as wetting agents in perms, foaming agents in shampoos, emulsifiers in certain creams, and solubilizers for perfumes and scents.
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