Surfactants 101: Usages & Advantages in Day-to-day Life

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 opposite end; hydrophilic groups tend to be 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 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 with a special molecular structure, which usually contain hydrophilic and hydrophobic groups. This amphiphilic nature enables surfactants to form interfaces between water as well as other immiscible liquids and lower 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 will significantly reduce the surface tension of the solvent in a very low concentration, thus changing the interfacial state from 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 a wide range of applications in many fields, like daily life, industrial production, and scientific research. Based on their different chemical structures and properties, surfactants could be split into two classes: 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 many widely produced surfactants. Common anionic surfactants include salts of essential fatty acids, sulfonates, sulfate salts and phosphate salts. They have good detergency, emulsification, dispersion, solubilization, as well as 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. Due to 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 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 therefore are commonly used in detergents, cosmetics, medicine, and 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 are compatible with 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 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: like dimethylamine oxide, etc.
Special types of surfactants
Polymer surfactants: surfactants with higher molecular chain structure.
Bio-surfactants: like phospholipids, glycolipids and 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 in to the water and stirred vigorously, the grease is going to 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 will not be simple to stratify for a long time after stopping, which is the emulsification effect. The reason is that 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 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, that are hydrophobic. Due to the pollution of those substances, the surface of the parts can be difficult to wet with water. When adding surfactants to the water solution, the water droplets on the parts is going to be easily dispersed so the surface tension of the parts is greatly reduced to get the purpose of wetting.
(3) solubilizing effect: oil substances in the addition of surfactant to be able to dissolve, but this dissolution can only occur when the power of surfactant reaches the critical concentration of colloid, the size of the solubility according to solubilizing objects and properties to determine. 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 normally more significant.
(4) Dispersing effect: Dust, dirt, as well as 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 play a role 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 reduced 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, like 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 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 important ingredients in detergents and cosmetics, such as laundry detergents, liquid detergents, shampoos, shower gels, moisturizing lotions and so on. They decrease the surface tension of water, making it easier 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 utilized as softeners, wetting agents, antistatic agents, dispersants, leveling agents and, color fixing agents, etc., which assist in improving the caliber 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 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 enhance soil water retention and permeability.
Petroleum industry: Along the way 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: 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.
In addition, surfactants play a vital role in many industries, such as construction, paint, paper, leather, and metal processing. Their application during these fields is mainly realized by improving product processing performance, enhancing product quality, and reducing production costs.
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