General Properties of Silicone Surfactants

Siloxane amphiphilic copolymers are a class of silicone surfactants consisting of a methylated siloxane hydrophobe attached to one or more polar chains such as poly(oxyalkylene). The blocks in the copolymer can be arranged in a linear fashion (as in A-B-type block copolymer) or, as in graft copolymers, one type of blocks can be attached (usually randomly) to a linear, backbone chain of the other type of blocks. Siloxane amphiphiUc copolymers are of special interest since their hydrophile-hydrophobe balance can be easily tailored by changing the length of the corresponding blocks [26-28]. 

Due to the special features mentioned above, siloxane amphiphiUc copolymers are used in a wide variety of applications including foam stabilization in plastic (polyurethane) foams, cosmetics, wetting, emulsification, lubrication and in antistatic agents, drug delivery and so forth. 

The use of surfactant self-assembly in the synthesis of mesoporous materials has become a very active field of research in the last two decades. However, the literature on the use of silicone surfactants in that field is still scarce. 

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