Synthetic surfactant

Synthetic rubbers Synthetics Synthetic silicates Synthetic surfactants Synthetic tanning agents... 

Although soaps have many physical properties in common with the broader class of surfactants, they also have several distinguishing factors. First, soaps are most often derived direcdy from natural sources of fats and oils (see Fats and fatty oils). Fats and oils are triglycerides, ie, molecules comprised of a glycerol backbone and three ester-linked fatty oils. Other synthetic surfactants may use fats and oils or petrochemicals as initial building blocks, but generally require additional chemical manipulations such as sulfonation, esterification, sulfation, and amidation. 

Minor ingredients include excess fatty acids, preservatives, and potentially other synthetic surfactants. Alternatively, mixing can be achieved through the use of in-line static mixers, with the accurate addition of the minors into a flowing stream of the wet soap. 

These surfactants, in conjunction with soap, produce bars that may possess superior lathering and rinsing in hard water, greater lather stabiUty, and improved skin effects. Beauty and skin care bars are becoming very complex formulations. A review of the Hterature clearly demonstrates the complexity of these very mild formulations, where it is not uncommon to find a mixture of synthetic surfactants, each of which is specifically added to modify various properties of the product. Eor example, one approach commonly reported is to blend a low level of soap (for product firmness), a mild primary surfactant (such as sodium cocoyl isethionate), a high lathering or lather-boosting cosurfactant, eg, cocamidopropyl betaine or AGS, and potentially an emollient like stearic acid (27). Such benefits come at a cost to the consumer because these materials are considerably more expensive than simple soaps. 

Body washes are another more recent introduction into the marketplace. These products have become a mainstay in the European market and, in only a few years, have grown to be a significant fraction of the U.S. market. Body washes can be simple formulas similar to those used for Hquid handsoaps or complex 2-in-l oil-in-water emulsion, moisturizing formulations. These products contain a wide range of synthetic surfactants not typically found in bar... 

Sodium carboxymethylceUulose, NaCMC, greatly reduces redeposition in cotton-washing systems based on synthetic surfactants. It is effective at remarkably low concentrations of ca 1% of the standard washing compositions used at ca 0.1 to 0.2% in the bath. Thus, ca 0.001—0.002%, or 10—20 ppm NaCMC is sufficient to significantly inhibit redeposition. 

Adsorption. Many studies have been made of the adsorption of soaps and synthetic surfactants on fibers in an attempt to relate detergency behavior to adsorption effects. Relatively fewer studies have been made of the adsorption of surfactants by soils (57). Plots of the adsorption of sodium soaps by a series of carbon blacks and charcoals show that the fatty acid and the alkaU are adsorbed independently, within limits, although the presence of excess aLkaU reduces the sorption of total fatty acids (58). No straightforward relationship was noted between detergency and adsorption. 

In a study of the adsorption of soap and several synthetic surfactants on a variety of textile fibers, it was found that cotton and nylon adsorbed less surfactant than wool under comparable conditions (59). Among the various surfactants, the cationic types were adsorbed to the greatest extent, whereas nonionic types were adsorbed least. The adsorption of nonionic surfactants decreased with increasing length of the polyoxyethylene chain. When soaps were adsorbed, the fatty acid and the aLkaU behaved more or less independently just as they did when adsorbed on carbon. The adsorption of sodium oleate by cotton has been shown independently to result in the deposition of acid soap (a composition intermediate between the free fatty acid and the sodium salt), if no heavy-metal ions are present in the system (60). In hard water, the adsorbate has large proportions of lime soap. 

Preparation for Dyeing. A hot alkaline scour with a synthetic surfactant and with 1% soda ash or caustic soda is used to remove size, lubricants, and oils. Sodium hypochlorite is sometimes included in the alkaline scouring bath when bleaching is requked. After bleaching, the polyester fabric is given a bisulfite rinse and, when requked, a further scouring in a formulated oxahc acid bath to remove mst stains and mill dkt which is resistant to alkaline scouring. 

Cellulose Triacetate. Cellulose acetate having 92% or more of the hydroxyl groups acetylated is referred to as triacetate. This fiber is characteristically more resistant to alkaU than the usual acetate and may be scoured, generally, in openwidth, with aqueous solutions of a synthetic surfactant and soda ash. 

Surface-active compounds, especially the anionic surfactants, are derived from fossil raw materials as well as from recent raw materials. The portion of the biomass on the production of anionic surfactants is about 75% if the soap, the quantitatively most important anionic surfactant, is included. Considering only the synthetic surfactants, the syndets, the portion of fossil raw materials in the production of these surfactants, is about 75%. Without the lignosulfonates (and the petroleum sulfonates) this portion is about 90%. Due to strong efforts... 

In 1932 the first household detergent based on synthetic surfactants was brought into the market under the name FEWA (Feinwaschmittel). The product was produced from fatty alcohol sulfate by Bohme Fettchemie in Chemnitz. The shortage of the necessary natural raw materials caused by World War II led to the development of products based on more readily available raw materials [2],... 

Even today renewable resources play a dominant role as raw materials for surfactants, but only because of the great contribution made by soaps to the production of surfactants. If the soaps are left out of consideration as native surfactants, petrochemistry holds 65-70% of the production of synthetic surfactants [2]. But for the future a further increase of renewable raw materials is expected in surfactant production [3]. The main reason for this development is the superior digestibility in the environment of products produced from natural materials. The future importance of the renewable raw materials becomes evident from the fact that even now new plants are cultivated or plants are modified to obtain an improved yield. A new type of sunflower has been cultivated to obtain a higher proportion of monounsaturated oleic acid compared with doubly unsaturated linoleic acid [4],... 

Derivatives of phosphoric acid are developed soon after the manufacture of synthetic surfactants on an industrial scale began. 

LAB is derived exclusively from petroleum- or natural gas-based feedstocks. Thus, it is referred to as a petrochemical (or synthetic) surfactant intermediate. Feedstocks for LAB production are generally paraffins (carbon chain length in the range of C8-C14) derived from kerosene and benzene. Internal olefins derived from ethylene are sometimes used in place of paraffins. 

Robertson, B., Johansson, J., and Cur-STEDT, T. Synthetic surfactants to treat neonatal lung disease. Mol. Med. Today 2000, 6, 119-124. 

The biodegradation of pyrene, chrysene, fluoranthene, benz[a]anthracene, dibenz[a,/t] anthracene, benzo[a]pyrene, and coronene by Stenotrophomonas maltophilia has been studied in the presence of a range of synthetic surfactants (Boonchan et al. 1998). Nonneutral surfactants were toxic, biodegradation was also inhibited by the neutral Igepal CA-630, and the positive enhancement of removal of substrates was generally low—in the range of 10%. 

Toxicity or inhibition of biodegradation by some nonneutral synthetic surfactants as a result of surfactant-induced permeabilization of the cells... 

Alkaline agents can reduce surfactant losses and permit the use of low concentrations of surfactants. Laboratory tests show that alkali and synthetic surfactants produce interfacial properties that are more favorable for increased oil mobilization than either alkali or surfactant alone [639,640]. 

Thin Film Spreading Agents are synthetic surfactants which change the wettability of reservoir rock surfaces from oil-wet and intermediate wettability to water-wet. 

The therapy for IRDS includes mechanical ventilation with continuous positive airway pressure. This maintains adequate ventilation and prevents airway collapse between breaths with the formation of atelectasis. Therapy also includes administration of exogenous pulmonary surfactant. Two types of surfactants are used to prevent and treat IRDS in the U.S. These include surfactants prepared from animal sources as well as synthetic surfactants. Exogenous pulmonary surfactants are administered as a suspension (in saline) through the endotracheal tube used for mechanical ventilation. 

Most studies of micellar systems have been carried out on synthetic surfactants where the polar or ionic head group may be cationic, e.g. an ammonium or pyridinium ion, anionic, e.g. a carboxylate, sulfate or sulfonate ion, non-ionic, e.g. hydroxy-compound, or zwitterionic, e.g. an amine oxide or a carboxylate or sulfonate betaine. Surfactants are often given trivial or trade names, and abbreviations based on either trivial or systematic names are freely used (Fendler and Fendler, 1975). Many commercial surfactants are mixtures so that purity can be a major problem. In addition, some surfactants, e.g. monoalkyl sulfates, decompose slowly in aqueous solution. Some examples of surfactants are given in Table 1, together with values of the critical micelle concentration, cmc. This is the surfactant concentration at the onset of micellization (Mukerjee and Mysels, 1970) and can therefore be taken to be the maximum concentration of monomeric surfactant in a solution (Menger and Portnoy, 1967). Its value is related to the change of free energy on micellization (Fendler and Fendler, 1975 Lindman and Wennerstrom, 1980). 

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