Ethoxylated surfactants alkylphenol ethoxylate

Surfactants, such as linear alkylbenzene sulfonates (LAS) and alkylphenol ethoxylates, are present in whitewaters because of their use as cleaning agents or as additives in antifoamers, deinkers, dispersants, etc. The non-ionic surfactants alkylphenol ethoxylates (APEO) degrade to nonylphenol (NP) or to a... 

On a truly commercial scale, the age of liquid detergents can be said to have begun in the late 1940s when the first liquid detergent for manual dishwashing was introduced. This liquid consisted essentially of a nonionic surfactant, alkylphenol ethoxylate. It produced only a moderate amount of foam when in use. 

Many different types of foaming agents are used, but nonionic surfactants are the most common, eg, ethoxylated fatty alcohols, fatty acid alkanolamides, fatty amine oxides, nonylphenol ethoxylates, and octylphenol ethoxylates, to name a few (see Alkylphenols). Anionic surfactants can be used, but with caution, due to potential complexing with cationic polymers commonly used in mousses. 

In the 1990s, the thmst of surfactant flooding work has been to develop surfactants which provide low interfacial tensions in saline media, particularly seawater require less cosurfactant are effective at low concentrations and exhibit lower adsorption on rock. Nonionic surfactants such as alcohol ethoxylates, alkylphenol ethoxylates (215) and propoxylates (216), and alcohol propoxylates (216) have been evaluated for this appHcation. More recently, anionic surfactants have been used (216—230). 

Etherification. Many of the mono alkylphenols and some of the dialkylphenols are converted into ethoxylates which find commercial apphcation as nonionic surfactants (9). For example, -nonylphenol reacts with ethylene oxide under mild basic conditions. 

Sulfonates with ether linkages include ring-sulfonated alkylphenol ethoxylates and a disulfonated alkyldiphenyl oxide, Dowfax 2A1, and 3B2 (Dow Chemical Company). This surfactant is characterized by high solubiUty in salt solutions, strong acids, or bases. It is used in industrial and institutional cleaners. 

Alkylphenol ethoxylates are chemically stable and highly versatile surfactants that find appHcation in a large variety of industrial products including acid and alkaline metal cleaning formulations, hospital cleaners, herbicides (qv) and insecticides, oil-weU drilling fluids, synthetic latices, and many others (see Disinfectants AND antiseptics Elastop rs, synthetic Insect control technology Metal surface treati nts Pesticides Petroleum, drilling fluids). 

Ethylene oxide is an important intermediate chemical not only for the production of nonionic surfactants like fatty alcohol ethoxylates, alkylphenol ethoxy lates, or propylene oxide/ethylene oxide block copolymers, but also for manufacturing of anionic surfactants like alcohol ether sulfates. 

Until the early 1980s, U.S. laundry liquid formulations contained combinations of LAS with AE (or even alkylphenol ethoxylate). Surfactant levels ranged from 20% to more than 40% active, and ratios ranged from high LAS/AE to low LAS/AE. Two examples of these laundry liquids are shown below. 

Steinle et al. [426] studied the primary biodegradation of different surfactants containing ethylene oxide, such as sulfates of linear primary alcohols, primary oxoalcohols, secondary alcohols, and primary and secondary alkyl-phenols, as well as sulfates of all these alcohols and alkylphenols with different degrees of ethoxylation. Their results confirm that primary linear alcohol sulfates are slightly more readily biodegradable than primary oxoalcohol sulfates and that secondary alcohol sulfates are also somewhat worse than the corresponding linear primary. 

Ether carboxylates are used not only in powdered detergents but in liquid laundry detergents for their hard water stability, lime soap dispersibility, and electrolyte stability they improve the suspension stability and rheology of the electrolyte builder [130,131]. Formulations based particularly on lauryl ether carboxylate + 4.5 EO combined with fatty acid salt and other anionic surfactants are described [132], sometimes in combination with quaternary compounds as softeners [133,163]. Ether carboxylates show improved cleaning properties as suds-controlling agents in formulations with ethoxylated alkylphenol or fatty alcohol, alkyl phosphate esters or alkoxylate phosphate esters, and water-soluble builders [134]. 

Alkylphenol ethoxylates (APEs) are nonionic surfactants that are used in the manufacturing of plastics, agricultural chemicals, cosmetics, herbicides, and industrial detergent formulations. Alkylphenols such as nonylphenol (NP) are the products of... 

This strategy has resulted in entirely new formulations with remarkable benefits. Sustainable Earth (SE) cleaning products combine reagents determined to be safer for human and environmental health with a positively characterized hybrid surfactant system containing a stabilized oxidizing compound. This system eliminates conventional ingredients such as alkyl glycol ethers, alkali builders, alkylphenol ethoxylates, EDTA and ethanolamine. 

Alkylphenol ethoxylates (APEOs) are a class of surfactants that have been used widely in the drilling fluid industry. The popularity of these surfactants is based on their cost-effectiveness, availability, and range of obtainable hydrophilic-lipophilic balance values [693]. Studies have shown that APEOs exhibit oestrogenic effects and can cause sterility in some male aquatic species. This may have subsequent human consequences, and such problems have led to a banning of their use in some countries and agreements to phase out their use. Alternatives to products containing APEOs are available, and in some cases they show an even better technical performance. 

Oil-in-water emulsions provide a cost-effective alternative to the methods mentioned previously, namely, heating or diluting. A typical transport emulsion is composed of 70% crude oil, 30% aqueous phase, and 500 to 2000 ppm of a stabilizing surfactant formulation [1497]. Nonionic surfactants are relatively insensitive to the salt content of the aqueous phase ethoxylated alkylphenols have been used successfully for the formation of stable emulsions that resist inversion. 

FD-MS is also an effective analytical method for direct analysis of many rubber and plastic additives. Lattimer and Welch [113,114] showed that FD-MS gives excellent molecular ion spectra for a variety of polymer additives, including rubber accelerators (dithiocar-bamates, guanidines, benzothiazyl, and thiuram derivatives), antioxidants (hindered phenols, aromatic amines), p-phcnylenediamine-based antiozonants, processing oils and phthalate plasticisers. Alkylphenol ethoxylate surfactants have been characterised by FD-MS [115]. Jack-son et al. [116] analysed some plastic additives (hindered phenol AOs and benzotriazole UVA) by FD-MS. Reaction products of a p-phenylenediaminc antiozonant and d.v-9-lricoscnc (a model olefin) were assessed by FD-MS [117],... 

It is important that any method for surfactant analysis maintains the same oligomer distribution in the extracted samples. LLE and SPE are generally combined with chromatographic methods for separation and resolution of non-ionic surfactants into their ethoxamers. An alternative is the use of SPME-HPLC, recently reported by Chen and Pawliszyn [141]. Alkylphenol ethoxylate surfactants such as Triton X-100 and various Rexol grades in water were determined by means of SPME-NPLC-UV (at 220 nm) [142]. Detection limits for individual alkylphenol ethoxamers were at low ppb level. 

Surfactants are also used to break low mobility oil emulsions. Organic amines and quaternary ammonium salts (128), alkylphenol ethoxylates (128), poly(ethylene oxide-co-propylene oxide-co-propylene glycol) (129) and alkyl- or alkylaryl polyoxyalkylene phosphate esters (130) are among the surfactants that have been used. 

As a test, surfactant slug flow experiments were performed in clayey sandpacks with and without the injection of a desorbent behind the micellar slug. Results show that a substantial decrease in surfactant retention is obtained in calcic environment by such an additive. Likewise, the ethoxylated cosurfactant in the micellar slug can be remobilized simultaneously with sulfonatewithout any change in its ethylene oxide distribution. The application of the RST to sulfonate/ ethoxylated alkylphenol mixtures explains semi-quantitatively the relationship between their properties and composition. 

Ethoxylated fatty alcohols and alkylphenols were used. The products available on the market make up homologous series containing an average of between 3 and 100 ethylene-oxide groups. They thus have a wide HLB (hydrophilic/lipophilic balance) range. Besides, they are among the least expensive surfactants on the market. 

The theory of regular solutions applied to mixtures of aromatic sulfonate and polydispersed ethoxylated alkylphenols provides an understanding of how the adsorption and micellization properties of such systems in equilibrium in a porous medium, evolve as a function of their composition. Improvement of the adjustment with the experimental results presented would make necessary to take also in account the molar interactions of surfactants adsorbed simultaneously onto the solid surface. 

Hager CD (1998) Alkylphenol ethoxylates - biodegradability, aquatic toxicity and environmental activity. In Karsa DR (ed) Annual surfactant review. Sheffield Academic Press,... 

Staples CA, Naylor CG, Williams JB, Gledhill WE (2001) Ultimate biodegradation of alkylphenol ethoxylates surfactants and their biodegradation intermediates. Environ Toxicol Chem 20 2450-2455... 

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