Surface properties of surfactants derived from natural products. Part 2: Structure/property relationships—Foaming, dispersion, and wetting

Abstract

AbstractSeveral novel and some previously known, mostly sugar‐based, surfactants have been synthesized, and their surface properties have been characterized and compared with commercial nonylphenol ethoxylates. The dispersion properties of the surfactants were studied by mixing carbon black into an aqueous surfactant solution. It was found that open sugars, as the headgroup, give rise to higher conformational repulsion and hence more effective dispersion properties than ringclosed sugar headgroups (e.g., furanoside or pyranoside forms). No conclusions could be made about the differences in dispersion properties between surfactants with aliphatic or aromatic tail groups. Increasing the area of the tail group, however, by using twin‐chain tail groups increased the dispersion properties of the surfactants further. The surfactants’ ability for wetting a hydrophobic parafilm surface was studied. The sugar‐based surfactants were found generally to possess poor wetting properties.