Interfacial Properties of Sugar-based Surfactants

Motivation Interest is growing in the development of material technologies that are based on renewable resources. The use of biomass as feedstock is of expanding industrial significance, particularly in the energy and commodities sectors. Relative to these arenas, monoand polysaccharides, very flexible and tunable chemical starting materials, are estimated to make up three-quarters of the world’s biomass. The efficient use of this resource is now recognized as a major future objective in a wide range of technology applications. The need exists to identify secondary streams of saccharide by-products and to use these materials as the basis for higher, value-added surfactant chemistries. Several research groups in the world are creating a platform for advancing the knowledge on the structure–performance properties and for facilitating the penetration of sugar-based surfactants in traditional markets dominated by nonrenewable nonionic surfactants. The general goals of the research work performed in these groups are to propose and test new structures for targeted applications as well as to provide the basis for future strategies aimed at enhancing cost-effectiveness. More specific aims involve both identifying molecular factors that govern the surface activity and facilitating the design and application of sugar-based surfactants as substitutes for conventional poly(ethylene oxide) (EO) surfactants and others. Significant groundwork was already done in this area (Balzer & Luders, 2000; Kiraly & Findenegg, 2000; Kocherbitov et al., 2002; Kumpulainen et al., 2004a,b, 2005; Liljekvist et al., 2001; Matsson et al., 2004; Muruganathan et al., 2003, 2004; Nickel et al., 1996; Persson et al., 2002, 2003a,b, 2004; Ruiz, 2009; Stubenrauch, 2001). Three classes of surfactants with sugar or a polyol derived from sugar as polar head group were widely researched: alkyl polyglucosides (APGs) (also known as alkylpolyglycosides), alkyl glucamides, and sugar esters (Holmberg, 2001). Both these surfactants and biosurfactants produced by microorganisms and other surfactants derived from renewable raw materials are coming progressively onto the market.