Surfactants 101: Uses & Benefits in Everyday Life

Exactly what is a surfactant?
Cationic Surfactants, also referred to as surfactants, are compounds that can significantly reduce 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 other end; hydrophilic groups are often polar groups, like carboxylic acid, sulfonic acid, sulfuric acid, amino or amine groups and their salts, hydroxyl, amide, ether bonds, etc., may also be used as polar hydrophilic groups; and hydrophobic groups tend to be nonpolar hydrocarbon chains, such as hydrocarbon chains of over 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 really 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 reduce interfacial tension, thus playing the roles of wetting, emulsifying, dispersing, solubilizing, foaming, defoaming and so on.
Types of surfactants
Surfactant is a special chemical substance that can significantly decrease the surface tension from the solvent at 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, therefore it is also known as an amphiphilic molecule.
Surfactants have an array of applications in many fields, like daily life, industrial production, and scientific research. According to their different chemical structures and properties, surfactants could be split into two categories: ionic and nonionic. Ionic surfactants can be further split into cationic, anionic, and amphoteric types.
Ionic surfactants
Anionic surfactants
Anionic surfactants are the most generally used and many widely produced surfactants. Common anionic surfactants include salts of essential fatty acids, sulfonates, sulfate salts and phosphate salts. They may have good detergency, emulsification, dispersion, solubilization, and other properties and therefore 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 usually used as post-treatment agents, softeners, antistatic agents and sterilizers for textiles.
Amphoteric ionic surfactants
Amphoteric ionic surfactants have both positive and negative charge groups in the molecule and show different charge properties at different pH values. These surfactants have excellent foaming, low irritation, good compatibility, and bactericidal properties and are commonly used in detergents, cosmetics, medicine, as well as other fields.
Nonionic surfactants
Nonionic surfactants 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 impacted by strong electrolytes and, acids and bases, and therefore are suitable for other types of surfactants. Common nonionic surfactants include polyethylene glycol type, polyol type, fluorinated surfactants and silicone type. They are commonly used in detergents, emulsifiers, dispersants, wetting agents and so on.
Types of surfactants:
Ionic surfactants
Anionic surfactants: e.g. sodium 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: like 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: like phospholipids, glycolipids as well as 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 into 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 take place. If you add surfactant and stir hard, it does not be easy to stratify for a long time after stopping, the emulsification effect. This is because the hydrophobicity of the grease is surrounded by hydrophilic groups of surfactant, forming a directional attraction, lowering the oil within the water dispersion of the work needed to create the grease emulsification is very good.
(2) Wetting effect: Parts often follow the surface of the layer of wax, grease, or scale-like substances, which are hydrophobic. Due to the pollution of these substances, the surface of the parts can be difficult to wet with water. When adding surfactants towards the water solution, the water droplets around the parts is going to be easily dispersed so the surface tension of the parts is cut down tremendously to achieve the reason for wetting.
(3) solubilizing effect: oil substances in adding surfactant in order to dissolve, but this dissolution could only occur once the concentration of surfactant reaches the critical concentration of colloid, the dimensions of the solubility based on solubilizing objects and properties to decide. When it comes to solubilization, the long hydrophobic gene hydrocarbon chain is stronger than the short hydrocarbon chain, the saturated hydrocarbon chain is stronger than the unsaturated hydrocarbon chain, as well as the solubilization effect of nonionic surfactants is generally more significant.
(4) Dispersing effect: Dust, dirt, as well as other solid particles are easy to gather together and settle in water; surfactant molecules can make solid particle aggregates split into small particles so that they are dispersed and suspended in the solution and play a role in promoting the uniform dispersion of solid particles.
(5) Foam effect: the development of foam is primarily the directional adsorption of active agent, is definitely the gas-liquid two-phase surface tension reduction caused by. Generally, the low molecular active agent is simple to foam, high molecular active agent foam less, cardamom acid yellow foam is definitely the highest, sodium stearate foam is the worst, anionic active agent foam and foam stability than nonionic good, such as sodium alkyl benzene sulfonate foam is very strong. Usually used foam stabilizers are fatty alcohol amide, carboxymethyl cellulose, etc. Foam inhibitors are fatty acids, fatty acid esters, polyethers, etc. as well as other nonionic surfactants.
Use of surfactants
Surfactants have a wide range of applications, almost covering our daily life and other industrial production fields. The following are among the main applications of surfactants:
Detergents and cosmetics: Surfactants are important ingredients in detergents and cosmetics, such as laundry detergents, liquid detergents, shampoos, shower gels, moisturizing lotions and so on. They reduce the surface tension of water, making it simpler for stains to become taken off the surface of objects while providing a wealthy lather and lubricating sensation.
Textile industry: Within the textile industry, surfactants are utilized as softeners, wetting agents, antistatic agents, dispersants, leveling agents and, color fixing agents, etc., which help to improve the caliber of textiles and enhance the uniformity of dyeing and color vividness.
Food industry: Surfactants can be used as emulsifiers, dispersants, wetting agents, defoamers, etc., in the manufacture of dairy foods, beverages, confectionery, as well as 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 as 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: In 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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