Surfactants 101: Applications & Benefits in Day-to-day Life

What is a surfactant?
Amphoteric Surfactants, also known as surfactants, are compounds that will 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 in the other 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, such as hydrocarbon chains of more than eight carbon atoms. Surfactants are divided into ionic surfactants (including cationic surfactants, anionic surfactants, and amphoteric surfactants), nonionic surfactants, complex surfactants, and other surfactants.
Overview of surfactants
Surfactants are a class of chemical substances having a special molecular structure, which usually 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 referred to as an amphiphilic molecule.
Surfactants have an array of applications in lots of fields, like daily life, industrial production, and scientific research. Based on 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 would be the most generally used and many widely produced surfactants. Common anionic surfactants include salts of fatty acids, sulfonates, sulfate salts and phosphate salts. They may have good detergency, emulsification, dispersion, solubilization, as well as other properties and are commonly used in detergents, cosmetics, textiles, printing and dyeing, petroleum, pharmaceutical, as well as other industries.
Cationic surfactants
Cationic surfactants are mostly nitrogen-containing organic amine derivatives with good bactericidal, antistatic and softening properties. Due to 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 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 widely used in detergents, cosmetics, medicine, as well as other fields.
Nonionic surfactants
Nonionic surfactants usually do not dissociate into ions in water and exist in solution in the form 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.
Examples 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 as well as other surfactants of natural biological origin.
Do you know the main functions of surfactants?
(1) Emulsification: Due to 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 require place. In the event you add surfactant and stir hard, it will not be simple to stratify for a long period after stopping, the emulsification effect. This is because the hydrophobicity from the grease is surrounded by hydrophilic groups of surfactant, forming a directional attraction, reducing the oil within the water dispersion of the work required to create the grease emulsification is superb.
(2) Wetting effect: Parts often follow the surface of a layer of wax, grease, or scale-like substances, which are hydrophobic. Due to the pollution of these substances, the surface from 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 get the purpose of wetting.
(3) solubilizing effect: oil substances in adding surfactant in order to dissolve, but this dissolution could only occur when the concentration of surfactant reaches the critical power of colloid, the size of the solubility according to solubilizing objects and properties to determine. In terms of 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, and 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 in promoting 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 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. and other nonionic surfactants.
Application of surfactants
Surfactants have a wide range of applications, almost covering our daily life and other industrial production fields. These are some of the main applications of surfactants:
Detergents and cosmetics: Surfactants are essential ingredients in detergents and cosmetics, such as laundry detergents, liquid detergents, shampoos, shower gels, moisturizing lotions and so forth. They reduce the surface tension of water, making it easier for stains to be taken off the surface of objects while providing a wealthy lather and lubricating sensation.
Textile industry: In 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 quality of textiles and improve the uniformity of dyeing and color vividness.
Food industry: Surfactants can be used emulsifiers, dispersants, wetting agents, defoamers, etc., in the creation of dairy foods, beverages, confectionery, as well as other food products to improve their stability and taste.
Agriculture and pesticides: In agriculture, surfactants can improve the wetting and dispersion of pesticides, thus improving their insecticidal effect. They can 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 help to improve the efficiency of oil extraction and processing.
Pharmaceutical industry: Within the pharmaceutical industry, surfactants may be used to prepare emulsions, suppositories, aerosols, tablets, injections, etc., playing the role of emulsification, solubilization, wetting, dispersion and penetration.
In addition, surfactants play a vital role in many industries, such as construction, paint, paper, leather, and metal processing. Their application in these fields is primarily realized by improving product processing performance, enhancing product quality, and reducing production costs.
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