Surfactants Tips: Uses & Benefits in Day-to-day Life

What is a surfactant?
Cocamidopropyl Betaine, also known 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 opposite end; hydrophilic groups are often polar groups, like 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.
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 reduce interfacial tension, thus playing the roles of wetting, emulsifying, dispersing, solubilizing, foaming, defoaming and so on.
Types of surfactants
Surfactant is really a special chemical substance that can significantly reduce the surface tension from the solvent in a really low concentration, thus changing the interfacial state of the system. This substance usually has both hydrophilic and lipophilic properties and can play a bridge role between two immiscible liquids, water and oil, therefore it is also known as an amphiphilic molecule.
Surfactants have a wide range of applications in many fields, such as daily life, industrial production, and scientific research. Based on their different chemical structures and properties, surfactants can be split into two categories: ionic and nonionic. Ionic surfactants can be further divided into cationic, anionic, and amphoteric types.
Ionic surfactants
Anionic surfactants
Anionic surfactants are the most widely 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 therefore are widely used in detergents, cosmetics, textiles, printing and dyeing, petroleum, pharmaceutical, and other industries.
Cationic surfactants
Cationic surfactants are generally 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 good and bad 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, and other fields.
Nonionic surfactants
Nonionic surfactants 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 widely 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: 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 higher 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 will be crushed into fine beads and mixed to form an emulsion, but the stirring will stop and re-layering will require place. If you add surfactant and stir hard, it does not be simple to stratify for a long time after stopping, the emulsification effect. This is because the hydrophobicity from the grease is surrounded by hydrophilic groups of surfactant, forming a directional attraction, lowering the oil in the water dispersion from the work needed to make the grease emulsification is very good.
(2) Wetting effect: Parts often adhere to the surface of a layer of wax, grease, or scale-like substances, which are hydrophobic. Because of the pollution of those 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 will 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 the addition of surfactant in order to dissolve, but this dissolution can only occur when the power of surfactant reaches the critical concentration of colloid, the dimensions of the solubility according to solubilizing objects and properties to determine. When it comes to 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, as well as other solid particles are simple to gather together and settle in water; surfactant molecules can make solid particle aggregates divided into small particles so they are dispersed and suspended within the solution and be involved to advertise 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 brought on by. Generally, the low molecular active agent is simple 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, like 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.
Use of surfactants
Surfactants have a wide range of applications, almost covering our daily life and various industrial production fields. These are among 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 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: In the textile industry, surfactants are utilized as softeners, wetting agents, antistatic agents, dispersants, leveling agents and, color fixing agents, etc., which assist in improving the quality of textiles and enhance 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, and other food products to enhance their stability and taste.
Agriculture and pesticides: In agriculture, surfactants can enhance 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: Along the way of oil extraction and processing, surfactants can be used as 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 can 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 lots of 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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