This book is a presentation and extension of surfactant science and also a technical resource for characterizing and formulating surfactants. It goes beyond the standard guidelines of hydrophilic-lipophilic balance (HLB), critical micelle concentration (CMC), Bancroft’s rule, Griffin numbers etc. to focus on surfactant phenomena as a dynamic system. It stresses parameters such as hydrophilic-lipophilic difference (HLD, an extension of Sallager’s SAD), curves of surface tension related to concentration, surface excess, partition coefficients, and area per surfactant molecule and shows how these can be used not only to quantify but also to create effective surfactant formulations. In explaining how property variables affect formulation results, the book offers numerous original phase diagrams and equations. A valuable feature of the text is that dozens of traditional and original equations are accessible as computer apps, thus helping readers reinforce their understanding and test their own data. Practical details are presented about concrete products, showing what works and does not. The technology in this text pertains to a range of industrial and specialized surfactants, with explicit attention given to cosmetics, cleaning agents, remediation of oil-contamination, paints, coatings, and biosurfactants.
From the Preface
The target audience for this book is a younger version of myself. I have included all those things I wish I had known years ago. Had I had this book, my life of formulating with surfactants would have been so much more productive!
This book, therefore, contains everything that I know about surfactant science that can be useful to someone (such as myself) who formulates with surfactants. So it is a good idea to make it clear right from the start that although there are many good answers to many of our formulation questions (and these answers are generally not the ones you read about) there are lots of surfactant questions for which surfactant science currently has no satisfactory answers…
Preface
Abbreviations and Symbols
CHAPTER 1: SOME BASICS
1.1 A summary in 9 images
1.2 What’s not included
1.3 CMC, Γm, A, K, E. Who cares?
1.4 Why CPP is mostly useless
1.5 Bancroft’s “Rule”
1.6 Why HLB should be banned
1.7 Surfactant blends
1.8 Elasticity and bending
1.9 Cloud Point and Krafft Point
1.10 Dynamic Surface Tension
1.10.1 Classic DST
1.10.2 DST around equilibrium
1.11 Partition coefficient
1.11.1 Measuring partition coefficients
1.12 The basics summarized
CHAPTER 2: HLD—TOWARDS RATIONAL EMULSIONS
2.1 Specific HLD examples
2.2 A waste of good surfactant
2.3 Extended Oil Recovery, EOR
2.4 Measuring Cc and EACN
2.4.1 Phase volumes
2.4.2 Fast scans
2.4.3 Silicone oils
2.5 Winsor R ratio and Packing Parameter
2.6 Who cares about microemulsions?
2.7 HLD is not enough
CHAPTER 3: NAC—NET AVERAGE CURVATURE
3.1 What can NAC do?
3.2 More fish power from NAC
3.3 More power from NAC—the fishtail plot
3.4 PIF—Phase Inversion Formulation
3.5 Going on forever
3.6 The problem of ξ
3.6.1 Other ways to look at ξ
3.6.2 Creating a large ξ for efficiency
3.6.3 CμC
3.6.4 Silicone oils
3.7 The point of this CHAPTER
CHAPTER 4: EMULSIONS
4.1 The numbers behind an emulsion
4.2 Size distributions
4.3 Viscosity
4.4 Avoiding destruction
4.4.1 Creaming
4.4.2 Ostwald Ripening
4.4.3 Flocculation
4.4.4 Coalescence
4.4.5 DLVO
4.4.6 Dynamic barriers: Elasticity, Gibbs-Marangoni and Wedges
4.5 How to make an emulsion
4.5.1 How not to make an emulsion
4.5.2 Predicting drop size
4.5.3 Using HLD-NAC
4.6 Emulsions by Catastrophic Inversion
4.7 Pickering emulsions
CHAPTER 5: FOAMS
5.1 Foam basics
5.2 Elasticity
5.3 Foam DLVO
5.4 Ostwald ripening
5.5 Foam Drainage
5.6 Foam Rheology
5.7 Antifoams
5.7.1 Practical issues
5.7.2 3 Coefficients
5.7.3 The Entry Barrier problem
5.7.4 Fast and slow
5.7.5 Disappearing antifoam
5.7.6 Now for the science bit
5.8 Making foams
5.9 Foam fractionation
CHAPTER 6: PROBLEMS
6.1 The polar oil problem
6.2 Building on the CIT model
6.3 Linkers, hydrotropes etc.
6.4 From problem to opportunity
6.4.1 Γm, A, K and elasticity
6.4.2 Curvature and IFT
6.4.3 Together
CHAPTER 7: PHASE DIAGRAMS
7.1 Phases
7.2 Binary diagrams
7.3 Ternary diagrams
7.3.1 Reading values from a ternary diagram
7.3.2 Paths through phase diagrams
7.3.3 Diagrams with 2-phase regions
7.3.4 Diagrams with 3-phase regions
7.3.5 HLD-NAC and microemulsion diagrams
7.3.6 General ternary diagrams
CHAPTER 8: PUTTING THE PRINCIPLES INTO PRACTICE
8.1 Detergency
8.2 EOR
8.2.1 Soil remediation
8.2.2 Dealing with oil spills
8.3 Cosmetics emulsions
8.4 Emulsion Polymerization
8.5 Making inorganic nanoparticles
8.6 Emulsion Separation
8.7 Bicontinuous Microemulsions
8.7.1 Microemulsion solvent cleaners
8.7.2 Cosmetic microemulsions
8.8 Levelling of paints and coatings
8.8.1 Surfactants to fix pinholes
8.8.2 Surfactants to fix other levelling issues
8.9 High throughput
8.9.1 Phase scans for Cc, EACN etc.
8.9.2 Phase diagrams
8.9.3 Small volume tricks
8.10 Surfactants as Solubilizers
8.11 The future of surfactant formulation practice
Steven Abbott is an Oxford- and Harvard University-trained chemist who currently consults for leading coating, cosmetic, and p[Linharmaceutical companies around the world on surface, interface, and solubility problems. He is the author of numerous technical articles and books, including “Nanocoatings: Principles and Practice”, and “Adhesion Science: Principles and Practice”. In addition to his chemistry and physics expertise, Dr. Abbott is skilled in the creation of interactive computer apps based on equations and formulas.
