“Surfactant” is just a contraction of the phrase “SURFace ACTive Agent”. What is it that makes a surfactant a surfactant?  The answer is surprisingly simple; much simpler than the multitude of applications where surfactants play a critical role. In the presentation linked below, with notes, you will discover that surfactants go by many names.  Those names often come from the applications.  In emulsion technology surfactants may be called emulsifiers.  In foams they may be called foaming agents.  In cleaning systems they may be called detergents or even soaps.  But in every application, the basic behavior of the surfactant is the same, and it is this basic behavior that makes them useful in such a wide range of modern technologies. And what makes them surfactants is that they are active at interfaces (surfaces).

Articles

• What is a Surfactant?

  A brief overview and introduction to the science and application of surfactants.

• Surfactants, Part I: Fundamentals

  Surfactants are important, or even crucial, in a wide variety of phenomena, including wetting, surface tension reduction, micelle formation, solubilization of organic solutes in micelles, emulsificaiion, dispersion formation, adjusting solution rheology, and foaming. The purpose of this article is to outline the important physical behavior of surfactants, primarily in aqueous solution, because this is where most studies have been done.

• Surfactants, Part II: Applications

  Surfactants are used in many applications, including consumer products, industrial products and processes, and environmental remediation. The total annual value of surfactants is on the order of $6B. As an example of the commercial importance of applications in which surfactants are crucial, the worldwide annual market for detergent or cleaning products, in which surfactants are an important component, is approximately $100B. The two articles on Surfactants on this page are split in “Fundamentals” and "Applications," with this article discussing applied aspects of surfactant behavior. The purpose of this article is to extend the discussion of fundamental surfactant behavior from Part I, to discuss some applications, like detergency and surfactant-based separations, and to describe environmental aspects of surfactants that influence their use in applications.

Recommended Reading

• Surfactant Aggregation, , J. H. Clint, Chapman and Hall, New York, 1992

• Surfactants and Interfacial Phenomena, , 3rd Ed., M.J. Rosen, Wiley-Interscience, New York, 2004

• Surfactants: Chemistry and Properties, , A. J. O’Lenick, Jr., Allured Publishing Corp., Carol Steam, Illinois, 1999

• Handbook of Surfactants, , 2nd Edition, edited by M. R. Porter, Blackie, London, 1994

• Surfactants: A Practical Handbook, , K. R. Lange, Hanser Gardner, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1999

• Surfactant Science and Technology, , D. Myers, VCH, New York, 1988

• Principles of Colloid and Surface Chemistry, , 3rd ed., P.C. Hiemenz, Marcel Dekker, New York, 1997

• Basic Principles of Colloid Science, , D.H. Everett, Royal Society of Chemistry, London, 1988

• Colloidal Systems and Interfaces, , S. Ross and I. D. Morrison, Wiley Interscience, New York, 1988

• The Colloidal Domain: Where Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and Technology Meet, , D. F. Evans and H. Wennerström, Eds., VCH, 1994.