Abstract
Surfactants are widely used in numerous applications, including detergents, emulsification, flotation, foaming control, surface-wetting modification and surfactant-based separation processes. The fields of surfactant chemistry and application are now so vast, there have been so many interesting recent development in its. Chemically, surfactant molecules usually are classified according to the nature of the hyrophilic group, in anionic, cationic, amphoteric and nonionic type. While, the nature of the hyrophobic groups are usually less pronounced than in the nature of the hydrophilic group. Generally, they are long-chain hydrocarbon residues. Polysiloxane and perfluoroalkyl group have also been used as the hydrophobic group in the surfactant. Recently, hybrid type surfactants having both hydrocarbon and fluorocarbon group were developed. Furthermore, many other functional surfactants have been newly developed by sophisticated organic synthesis and enzymatic reactions. Here, we report the overview of surfactants, especially recent research and development of novel surfactants.
