Industrial Aspects of Surfactants

Surfactants form a major class of chemicals finding a variety of applications. Over 700 surface active agents (anionic, nonionic and cationic) are manufactured. The major use of surfactants is in the form of cleaning products (soaps and detergents). The other important uses are in agriculturral sprays, cosmetics, floatation, foods, lubricants, textile processing, oil drilling and recovery, etc Such a diversity of application is due to the ability of the surfactant to act as wetting, cleaning and emulsifying agent in addition to its primary characteristic of accumulation at interfaces. Each of these properties can be achieved by proper design of the structural formula.

In this paper the structural features and critical properties relevant to a few applications will be dealt with. Some of the other aspects that are highlighted are raw materials for surfactants, statistics regarding surfactant production, newer surface active agents and some major application areas foreseen in the future. The Indian scenario will also be reviewed.