Surfactants at the Design Limit

Adam M Czajka, Gavin D A Hazell, Julian Eastoe*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (Academic Journal)peer-review

153 Citations (Scopus)
438 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

This article analyzes how the individual structural elements of surfactant molecules affect surface properties, in particular, the point of reference defined by the limiting surface tension at the aqueous cmc, γcmc. Particular emphasis is given to how the chemical nature and structure of the hydrophobic tails influence γcmc. By comparing the three different classes of surfactants, fluorocarbon, silicone, and hydrocarbon, a generalized surface packing index is introduced which is independent of the chemical nature of the surfactants. This parameter ϕcmc represents the volume fraction of surfactant chain fragments in a surface film at the aqueous cmc. It is shown that ϕcmc is a useful index for understanding the limiting surface tension of surfactants and can be useful for designing new superefficient surfactants.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)8205-8217
Number of pages13
JournalLangmuir
Volume31
Issue number30
Early online date21 Mar 2015
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 4 Aug 2015

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  • New low surface energy materials

    Eastoe, J. (Principal Investigator)

    7/01/137/01/16

    Project: Research

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