Alkylbenzenesulfonic acids, manufacture

Surfactants and Detergents Uses. Perhaps the largest use of sulfonic acids is the manufacture of surfactants (qv) and surfactant formulations. This is primarily owing to the dominance of linear alkylbenzenesulfonic acid production for detergent manufacture. In almost all cases, the parent sulfonic acid is an intermediate which is converted to a sulfonate prior to use. The largest volume uses for sulfonic acid intermediates are the... 

A relatively new process for siloxane manufacture is aqueous phase emulsion polymerization. Cyclosiloxanes such as D4 when mixed with water and alkylbenzenesulfonates as a surfactant, along with some free sulfonic acid, form an emulsion. When the mixture is heated to > 60 °C, ring opening of the cyclosiloxane takes place to give a, ty-dihydroxy oligosiloxanes, which undergo acid-catalyzed condensation to form long-chain siloxanes. 

The salts of aromatic sulfonic acids, alkylarylsulfonates (most commonly alkylbenzenesulfonates), with the general formula RArSCk Me+ are the least expensive and most widely available synthetic surfactants. These surfactants contribute about 70% of all the manufactured anionics, which include more than 100 species. The anion of a strong acid present in the structure of these surfactants accounts for the good detergency of these... 

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