Surfactants commercially available

Abstract

The first requirement of any practical user of surfactants is to find out if a particular surfactant is available commercially in the required quantities, and in the right price range. Directories giving details of which specific products are available do exist (see Chapter 3); Chapters 6–11 do not attempt to replace these sources of information. Most directories will have considerable detail on where to find products, trade names, approximate compositions and suggested applications but lack details of the composition and properties of different classes of surfactant. Chapters 6–11 attempt to classify products, describe their composition, give a description of the physical and chemical properties, the applications in which they are used and some suggested tests on which to base a specification for quality and reproducibility. There are speciality books dealing with all these aspects but these chapters summarise these features to enable the user to obtain an initial choice of the surfactant. They should also give a quick easy summary of the principal properties of those surfactant types which are unfamiliar. All the types of surfactants described are commercially available at the time of writing.