Surfactants and Interfacial Phenomena
Chapter One
Characteristic Features
of Surfactants
Surfactants are among the most versatile products of the chemical industry,
appearing in such diverse products as the motor oils we use in our automobiles,
the pharmaceuticals we take when we are ill, the detergents we use in cleaning our
laundry and our homes, the drilling muds used in prospecting for petroleum, and the
flotation agents used in benefication of ores. The last decades have seen the
extension of surfactant applications to such high-technology areas as electronic
printing, magnetic recording, biotechnology, micro-electronics, and viral research.
A surfactant (a contraction of the term surface-active agent) is a substance that,
when present at low concentration in a system, has the property of adsorbing onto
the surfaces or interfaces of the system and of altering to a marked degree the
surface or interfacial free energies of those surfaces (or interfaces). The term
interface indicates a boundary between any two immiscible phases; the term
surface denotes an interface where one ... read full excerpt from Surfactants and Interfacial Phenomena, 3rd Edition ebook
