Description

Surfactants are key ingredients in a broad range of applications, from laundry detergents to personal care products to polymeric materials. The diverse properties and the surface activity required by these different applications have led to a broad range of surfactants nowadays available. In this course, these diverse surface active materials will be explained and differentiated against each other, with suggestions being made for the right selection of appropriate materials. Topics like the environmental and legal framework for the use of surfactants will be touched as well. This course will give a good overview about the possibilities of interfering at the interface of water and oil in detergents and in emulsions. The field of modern surfactant science will be addressed based on current scientific knowledge, broken into six modules: In the first module, surface activity and its physico-chemical base will be addressed and the important chemical classes of surfactants will be discussed. In the second module, personal care cleansing will be introduced in depth with worked out formulations. In the third module, emulsions and microemulsions will be discussed, both water in oil and oil in water systems and their compositions according to latest standards. In the fourth module, cleaning will be addressed with formulation and testing recommendations. In the fifth module, car care will be discussed as a complete process In the sixth module silicone surfactants will be addressed as a special category of surfactants with their unique ability to be designed for specific grades of hydrophobicity and oleophobicity in the same molecule.