Surfactant

Surfactants are chemical compounds that decrease the surface tension or interfacial tension between two liquids, a liquid and a gas, or a liquid and a solid. The word "surfactant" is a blend of surface-active agent,^[1] coined c. 1950.^[2] As they consist of a water-repellent and a water-attracting part, they enable water and oil to mix; they can form foam and facilitate the detachment of dirt.

Surfactants are among the most widespread and commercially important chemicals. Private households as well as many industries use them in large quantities as detergents and cleaning agents, but also for example as emulsifiers, wetting agents, foaming agents, antistatic additives, or dispersants.

Surfactants occur naturally in traditional plant-based detergents, e.g. horse chestnuts or soap nuts; they can also be found in the secretions of some caterpillars. Today the most commonly used surfactants, above all anionic linear alkylbenzene sulfates (LAS), are produced from petroleum products. However, surfactants are (again) increasingly produced in whole or in part from renewable biomass, like sugar, fatty alcohol from vegetable oils, by-products of biofuel production, or other biogenic material.^[3]

^ Rosen MJ, Kunjappu JT (2012). Surfactants and Interfacial Phenomena (4th ed.). Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. p. 1. ISBN 978-1-118-22902-6. Archived from the original on 8 January 2017. A surfactant (a contraction of surface-active agent) is a substance that, when present at low concentration in a system, has the property of adsorbing onto the surfaces or interfaces of the system and of altering to a marked degree the surface or interfacial free energies of those surfaces (or interfaces).
^ "surfactant". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.) – "A new word, Surfactants, has been coined by Antara Products, General Aniline & Film Corporation, and has been presented to the chemical industry to cover all materials that have surface activity, including wetting agents, dispersants, emulsifiers, detergents and foaming agents."
^ "Biobased Surfactants Market Report: Market Analysis". Ceresana Market Research. Retrieved 5 January 2024.

[Rosen_MJ-1] Rosen MJ, Kunjappu JT (2012). Surfactants and Interfacial Phenomena (4th ed.). Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. p. 1. ISBN 978-1-118-22902-6. Archived from the original on 8 January 2017. A surfactant (a contraction of surface-active agent) is a substance that, when present at low concentration in a system, has the property of adsorbing onto the surfaces or interfaces of the system and of altering to a marked degree the surface or interfacial free energies of those surfaces (or interfaces).

[2] "surfactant". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.) – "A new word, Surfactants, has been coined by Antara Products, General Aniline & Film Corporation, and has been presented to the chemical industry to cover all materials that have surface activity, including wetting agents, dispersants, emulsifiers, detergents and foaming agents."

[auto-3] "Biobased Surfactants Market Report: Market Analysis". Ceresana Market Research. Retrieved 5 January 2024.

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