Surfactants Tips: Uses & Benefits in Daily Life

What is a surfactant?
Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, also referred to as surfactants, are compounds that will significantly decrease the surface tension or interfacial tension between two liquids, between liquids and gases, and between liquids and solids. The molecular structure of surfactants is amphoteric: hydrophilic group at one end, hydrophobic group at the opposite end; hydrophilic groups tend to be polar groups, such as carboxylic acid, sulfonic acid, sulfuric acid, amino or amine groups as well as their salts, hydroxyl, amide, ether bonds, etc., may also be used as polar hydrophilic groups; and hydrophobic groups are often nonpolar hydrocarbon chains, like hydrocarbon chains of more than eight carbon atoms. Surfactants are split into ionic surfactants (including cationic surfactants, anionic surfactants, and amphoteric surfactants), nonionic surfactants, complex surfactants, as well as other surfactants.
Summary of surfactants
Surfactants are a class of chemical substances having a special molecular structure, which often contain hydrophilic and hydrophobic groups. This amphiphilic nature enables surfactants to form interfaces between water and other immiscible liquids and lower interfacial tension, thus playing the roles of wetting, emulsifying, dispersing, solubilizing, foaming, defoaming and so forth.
Types of surfactants
Surfactant is a special chemical substance that can significantly reduce the surface tension from the solvent in a very low concentration, thus changing the interfacial state of the system. This substance usually has both hydrophilic and lipophilic properties and may play a bridge role between two immiscible liquids, water and oil, so it is also referred to as an amphiphilic molecule.
Surfactants have an array of applications in lots of fields, like daily life, industrial production, and scientific research. According to their different chemical structures and properties, surfactants could be divided into two classes: ionic and nonionic. Ionic surfactants could be further split into cationic, anionic, and amphoteric types.
Ionic surfactants
Anionic surfactants
Anionic surfactants are the most generally used and most widely produced surfactants. Common anionic surfactants include salts of fatty acids, sulfonates, sulfate salts and phosphate salts. They have good detergency, emulsification, dispersion, solubilization, and other properties and are widely used in detergents, cosmetics, textiles, printing and dyeing, petroleum, pharmaceutical, and other industries.
Cationic surfactants
Cationic surfactants are mostly nitrogen-containing organic amine derivatives with good bactericidal, antistatic and softening properties. Because of their good softness and antistatic properties on fabrics, they are often used as post-treatment agents, softeners, antistatic agents and sterilizers for textiles.
Amphoteric ionic surfactants
Amphoteric ionic surfactants have both good and bad charge groups within the molecule and show different charge properties at different pH values. These surfactants have excellent foaming, low irritation, good compatibility, and bactericidal properties and therefore are commonly used in detergents, cosmetics, medicine, and other fields.
Nonionic surfactants
Nonionic surfactants usually do not dissociate into ions in water and appear in solution by means of neutral molecules or micro ions. These surfactants are highly stable, not easily affected by strong electrolytes and, acids and bases, and are compatible with other types of surfactants. Common nonionic surfactants include polyethylene glycol type, polyol type, fluorinated surfactants and silicone type. They may be widely used in detergents, emulsifiers, dispersants, wetting agents and so on.
Types of surfactants:
Ionic surfactants
Anionic surfactants: e.g. sodium essential fatty acids, alkyl sulfates, etc.
Cationic surfactants: e.g. quaternary ammonium salts, amine salts, etc.
Amphoteric ionic surfactants: e.g. amino acid type, betaine type, etc.
Nonionic surfactants
Polyoxyethylene ether type: such as fatty alcohol polyoxyethylene ether.
Polyol type: e.g. glycerol ester, sorbitol ester, etc.
Amine oxide type: such as dimethylamine oxide, etc.
Special types of surfactants
Polymer surfactants: surfactants with high molecular chain structure.
Bio-surfactants: such as phospholipids, glycolipids and other surfactants of natural biological origin.
Do you know the main functions of surfactants?
(1) Emulsification: Because of the large surface tension of grease in water, when grease is dripped in to the water and stirred vigorously, the grease is going to be crushed into fine beads and mixed to create an emulsion, but the stirring will stop and re-layering will require place. If you add surfactant and stir hard, it will not be simple to stratify for a long time after stopping, the emulsification effect. The reason is that the hydrophobicity of the grease is surrounded by hydrophilic teams of surfactant, forming a directional attraction, lowering the oil in the water dispersion of the work required to make the grease emulsification is superb.
(2) Wetting effect: Parts often follow the surface of the layer of wax, grease, or scale-like substances, that are hydrophobic. Due to the pollution of these substances, the surface from the parts can be difficult to wet with water. When adding surfactants to the water solution, the water droplets around the parts will be easily dispersed so that the surface tension from the parts is greatly reduced to achieve the reason for wetting.
(3) solubilizing effect: oil substances in the addition of surfactant to be able to dissolve, but this dissolution could only occur once the power of surfactant reaches the critical power of colloid, the dimensions of the solubility based on solubilizing objects and properties to determine. In terms of solubilization, the long hydrophobic gene hydrocarbon chain is stronger compared to the short hydrocarbon chain, the saturated hydrocarbon chain is stronger compared to the unsaturated hydrocarbon chain, as well as the solubilization effect of nonionic surfactants is generally more significant.
(4) Dispersing effect: Dust, dirt, and other solid particles are simple to gather together and settle in water; surfactant molecules could make solid particle aggregates divided into small particles so that they are dispersed and suspended in the solution and be involved to advertise the uniform dispersion of solid particles.
(5) Foam effect: the formation of foam is primarily the directional adsorption of active agent, is the gas-liquid two-phase surface tension reduction caused by. Generally, the low molecular active agent is easy to foam, high molecular active agent foam less, cardamom acid yellow foam is the highest, sodium stearate foam is definitely the worst, anionic active agent foam and foam stability than nonionic good, such as sodium alkyl benzene sulfonate foam is extremely strong. Usually used foam stabilizers are fatty alcohol amide, carboxymethyl cellulose, etc. Foam inhibitors are essential fatty acids, fatty acid esters, polyethers, etc. as well as other nonionic surfactants.
Use of surfactants
Surfactants have an array of applications, almost covering our daily life and other industrial production fields. The following are some of the main uses of surfactants:
Detergents and cosmetics: Surfactants are important ingredients in detergents and cosmetics, like laundry detergents, liquid detergents, shampoos, shower gels, moisturizing lotions and so forth. They decrease the surface tension of water, making it simpler for stains to become removed from the surface of objects while providing a rich lather and lubricating sensation.
Textile industry: Within the textile industry, surfactants are used as softeners, wetting agents, antistatic agents, dispersants, leveling agents and, color fixing agents, etc., which help to improve the caliber of textiles and improve the uniformity of dyeing and color vividness.
Food industry: Surfactants can be used as emulsifiers, dispersants, wetting agents, defoamers, etc., within the creation of dairy products, beverages, confectionery, and other food products to improve their stability and taste.
Agriculture and pesticides: In agriculture, surfactants can enhance the wetting and dispersion of pesticides, thus improving their insecticidal effect. They may also be used as soil conditioners to improve soil water retention and permeability.
Petroleum industry: In the process of oil extraction and processing, surfactants can be used emulsion breakers, oil repellents, anti-waxing agents, and enhancement of recovery, etc., which assist in improving the efficiency of oil extraction and processing.
Pharmaceutical industry: Within the pharmaceutical industry, surfactants can be used to prepare emulsions, suppositories, aerosols, tablets, injections, etc., playing the role of emulsification, solubilization, wetting, dispersion and penetration.
Additionally, surfactants play a vital role in many industries, like construction, paint, paper, leather, and metal processing. Their application during these fields is primarily realized by improving product processing performance, enhancing product quality, and reducing production costs.
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