Development of Novel Surfactants for High Performance and High Functionality – Molecular Design, Surface Properties, and Characterization of Micelles and Foams –

Abstract

Surfactants are amphiphilic compounds with functional groups having opposite properties of hydrophobic and hydrophilic groups in a single molecule. Surfactants are used in a wide range of industrial fields, such as detergents, cosmetics, foods, pharmaceuticals, paints, and agrochemicals, because they adsorb at the interface and significantly change the properties of the interface, and have various effects such as washing, emulsifying, dispersing, solubilizing, foaming, and defoaming. To improve the properties and various functions for existing surfactants, various new surfactants have been developed. In this review, we report the novel surfactant: (1) polyoxypropylene-polyoxyethylene nonionic surfactants with a single chain length distribution, (2) homogeneous polyoxyethylene nonionic surfactants with multi-branched chains, (3) hydroxy group-containing amino acid surfactant. The adsorption and aggregation properties of these surfactants were characterized (cloud point, surface tension, dynamic light scattering, small-angle X-ray / neutron scattering, polarization microscopy, and cryogenic transmission electron microscopy.