Surfactants Tips: Applications & Advantages in Daily Life
Exactly what is a surfactant?
Sodium Lauroyl Sarcosinate, also known as surfactants, are compounds that can 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 in the opposite 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 are often nonpolar hydrocarbon chains, such as hydrocarbon chains of over 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 with 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 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 will significantly decrease 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 can 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, such as daily life, industrial production, and scientific research. Based on their different chemical structures and properties, surfactants can be divided into two categories: ionic and nonionic. Ionic surfactants can be further divided into cationic, anionic, and amphoteric types.
Ionic surfactants
Anionic surfactants
Anionic surfactants would be the most generally used and most 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 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 often 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 therefore 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 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 may be commonly used in detergents, emulsifiers, dispersants, wetting agents and so forth.
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: like 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 high molecular chain structure.
Bio-surfactants: such as phospholipids, glycolipids as well as other surfactants of natural biological origin.
What are 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 create an emulsion, however the stirring will stop and re-layering will require place. In the event you add surfactant and stir hard, it does not be simple to stratify for a long time after stopping, which is the emulsification effect. This is because the hydrophobicity from the grease is surrounded by hydrophilic teams of surfactant, forming a directional attraction, reducing the oil in the water dispersion from the work needed to create 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. Due to the pollution of those substances, the surface of the parts is not easy to wet with water. When adding surfactants to the water solution, the water droplets on the parts is going to be easily dispersed so that the surface tension from the parts is cut down tremendously to achieve 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 concentration of surfactant reaches the critical concentration 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, and the solubilization effect of nonionic surfactants is normally more significant.
(4) Dispersing effect: Dust, dirt, and other solid particles are easy to gather together and settle in water; surfactant molecules could make solid particle aggregates split into small particles so 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 the gas-liquid two-phase surface tension reduction caused by. Generally, the reduced molecular active agent is simple 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 essential fatty acids, fatty acid esters, polyethers, etc. as well as other nonionic surfactants.
Application 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 important 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 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, and 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 enhance 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 help to improve the efficiency of oil extraction and processing.
Pharmaceutical industry: In 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.
Additionally, surfactants play an important role in lots of industries, like 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.
Top quality factory price surfactant supplier in China
Luoyang Trunnano Tech Co., Ltd (TRUNNANO) is professional in cladding of metal solutions for 10 years , which is a professional company with supply and marketing integration.
We provides different types of surfactants, like anionic surfactants, sodium lauryl sulfate, sodium laureth sulfate, sodium lauroyl sarcosinate,etc.
The company features a professional technical department and Quality Supervision Department, a properly-equipped laboratory, and built with advanced testing equipment and after-sales customer service center. Send us an e-mail to [email protected].