SURFACTANT

Uses

Surfactants represent the most important group of detergent components. They are present in all types of detergents. In general, surfactants are water-soluble surface-active agents comprising a hydrophobic group (a long alkyl chain) attached to a hydrophilic group.
The hydrophilic group is usually added synthetically to a hydrophobic material to produce a compound that is soluble in water. However, this solubilization does not necessarily produce a detergent, because detergency depends on the balance of the molecular weight of the hydrophobic portion to that of the hydrophilic portion.
Therefore, there are four main groups of surfactants: anionic, cationic, nonionic, and amphoteric[1-4].

Definition

A substance that lowers surface tension and has properties of wetting, foaming, detergency, dispersion, and emulsification.