The worldwide consumption of surfactants now exceeds several million tonnes per annum. Six ofthe major types represent approximately 80% ofthe volume consumed, whereas the remaining 20% is made up of approximately 40 different chemical types. Commercially produced surface active agents are not pure chemicals, and within each chemical type there can be tremendous variation. Technical staff who are not familiar with surfactants are frequently bewildered by the enormous variety of different products on the market and the vast body of literature which exists on the composition and properties of surfactants. The selection of the best surfactant for any given use therefore becomes a major problem. This volume arose from the clear need to have available a simple reference book summarising the different types of surfactants on the market and their properties. The concept and structure of the book evolved from early attempts to define chemical structure/property relationships of all the different types of surfactants commercially available, into a simple handbook providing essential background information for the surfactant user. It is realised that most users will be developing their own data bank of structure/end use property relationships and they will therefore be the experts on end use.

Handbook of Surfactants

Porter, M.R.

Science & Math

Springer

<p>In preparing the second edition of this book, I have revised, updated and extended the original material, with particular attention to two areas of the book where there has been considerable publication of new material. The chapters on the use of surfactant theory and polymeric surfactants have been completely rewritten. Surfactant theory has seen considerable progress in the 1980s, but it is only in the last few years that it has been simplified such that it can be used in helping to formulate compositions containing surfactants in different applications. It must be admitted that even now most applications utilise empirical methods of formulation but the results in many cases can be better interpreted. Wetting and micro emulsions are now much better understood, but foams and defoamers still elude simplification. The use of theory in formulating compositions will probably very slowly be extended, but only if fairly simple rules, preferably non-mathematical, can be taught to industrial chemists. The concept of geometrical packing of surfactant molecules at an interface and the effect of the relative size of the head and tail has probably been the major advance in simplifying theory. This concept is now well recognised in the scientific literature but is not yet used widely by technologists using surfactants. I hope that this book will help in spreading the use of this simple concept.</p>

Chemistry

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Books by Porter, M.R.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Porter, M.R.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Handbook of Surfactants

Handbook of Surfactants