Take it to the limit: VERY low surface tension surfactants

Results from this experiment will develop the ability to design 21st century surfactants (better performance with lower environmental consequences) by gaining essential information on how molecular packing in air-water interfacial films influences surface tension. A sister proposal has been submitted this round to study aggregation of similar surfactants by SANS (“Surfactants in the mirror”). Reduction of the surface tension through mixed systems using only hydrocarbon surfactants will have consequences for industrial formulations including lubricants, surface coatings and medical formulations. However, it is first important to understand how these systems pack at the interface and how this impacts on the final aqueous surface tension reduction. Neutron reflectivity (NR) and contrast variation provides the ideal approach to study surface composition, orientation and surface excess of surfactant monolayers