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Al-Lohedan, H.A.* and Al-Blewi , F.F. SURFACTANTS PART 1: OVERVIEW ON THEIR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. J. Saudi Chem. Soc., (2008). Vol. 12, No. 4; pp. 489-514. Department of Chemistry, King Saud University P.O. Box 2455, Riyadh-11451, Saudi Arabia (Received 14th June 2008; Accepted 8th Oct. 2008);[The book ‘Biological Eects of Surfactants’ was cited in this paper. More info on this book:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/46637373; http://www.scribd.com/doc/46613666; http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sergei_Ostroumov/blog/7123_FAQ2BookBioeffects; http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sergei_Ostroumov/blog/7050_Arabic_on_Detergents
]
Key words: Effects, Surfactants, Detergents, Ecotoxicology, pollution, water quality, environmental studies, environmental chemistry, freshwater, marine ecosystems, aquatic ecosystems, biotesting, bioassay, synthetic chemicals, pollutants, toxicology, sustainability, water resources; Micelles; Critical micelle concentration, CMC; Micellar shape; Solubilization, Reversed micelles, Aggregation number, Krafft point, HLB,
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ﺬهﻠﻰﺆﺛ
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. Abstract: Surfactants are among the most versale chemical compounds. They are amphiphilic molecules composed of a hydrophilic head and a hydrophobic tail. This dual nature of the surfactants produces a strong anity for interfaces between immiscible uids such as oil and water. Surfactants can reduce surface and interfacial tensions by accumulang at the interface of immiscible uids to form micelles and increase the solubility, mobility, bioavailability and subsequent biodegradaon of hydrophobic or insoluble organic compounds. Part 1 of this review aords valuable informaon about the surfactants starng with their natural occurrence and general classicaon. Then it adds addional light on the chemistry development of these compounds. Last but not least it discusses in detail the most important physical properes of these compounds in the soluons, which gave them their extraordinary criteria, by emphasizing on the factors that aect on these properes. Keywords: Surfactants; Micelles; Crical micelle concentraon CMC; Micellar shape; Solubilizaon, Reversed micelles, Aggregaon number, Kra point, HLB.Contents page 1 Introducon490 2Surfactants490 3Natural surfactants 4914General classicaons of surfactants4925The development of surfactant chemistry4926Physical properes of surfactants4946.1Micellar formaon4946.1.1Normal micellar formaon4946.1.2Reversed micellar formaon495* To whom all correspondence should be addressed --------------------------------------------------------------------------------Page 2
 
Hamad A. Al-Lohedan and Fawzia F. Al-BlewiJ. Saudi Chem. Soc., Vol. 12, No. 44906.2Crical micelle concentraon CMC4956.2.1Factors aecng crical micelle concentraon CMC4976.2.1.1Hydrocarbon chain length and structure4976.2.1.2Nature of the polar head group4986.2.1.3The eect of counterion4996.2.1.4The eect of addives5006.2.1.5The eect of the temperature5006.2.1.6The eect of pressure5016.3Surfactant and interfacial tension5016.4The Kra and cloud point5026.5The HLB concept5026.6Micellar structure and shape5046.7Aggregaon number5066.8Solubilizaon in aqueous micellar soluon508References5091. INTRODUCTIONThe widespread importance of surfaceacve agents (usually referred to as surfactants)in praccal applicaons, and scienc interest intheir nature and properes, have precipitated awealth of published literature on the subject [1-31]. Over the past ten years, new surfactantsmolecules have been appearing at a relavelyrapid pace. This growth in surfactant synthesis hasparalleled the emphasis on increasing the basicperformance of surfactant formulaons and theprovision of new surfactant technology to adiverse range of disciplines. Although surfactantscience is now a reasonably mature discipline,there is a sll room for new moleculesdesignedfor specic purposes and new applicaons (suchas nanoparcle synthesis and more diverse andenvironmentally friendly consumer products).These new materials have spurred on the quest forimprovedmolecularmodels,computersimulaons and improved structure-acvityrelaonships. New funconalized surfactantsdepend crically on the nature and placement ofaddional groups. Slight modicaons of themolecular structure with respect to convenonalsurfactants lead to a rich morphology of structuresthat are being explored by increasingly moresophiscated techniques and , in turn, enhancingour understanding of their properes at amolecular level [32-36]. This review aims to provide deeplyknowledge about surfactants, by giving a basicoverview of the nature of surfactants, theirdevelopment and their physical properes in thesoluons and at interfaces. 2 SurfactantsSurfactants are amphipathic molecules thatconsist of a nonpolar hydrophobic poron, usuallya straight or branched hydrocarbon oruorocarbon chain containing 8-18 carbon atoms,which is aached to a polar or ionic poron(hydrophilic). The hydrophilic poron can,therefore be nonionic, ionicor zwierionic, andaccompanied by counter ions in the last two cases[37]. These compounds are termedsurfactants,amphiphiles, surface-acve agents, tensides, or, inthe very old literature, paran-chain salts. Themost commonly used term, surfactant, wasoriginally registered as a trademark for selectedsurface-acve products and later released to thepublic domain [38]. The adsorpon of thesesurfactants at gas/liquid and liquid/liquid interfacehas long been recognized as key factor in widevariety of praccal applicaons areas which areillustrated in terms of mineral and petroleumprocessing, biological systems, pharmaceucals,health, personal care products, foods and cropsproducon. Owing To their tendency to beadsorbed at interface, they are oen called assurface acve agents or colloidal surfactants. Theyundergo self-associaon resulng in colloidalaggregates of high molecular weight calledmicelle [39]. The aggregates generally contain atleast 50 monomers when the surfactant is ionic,but they are usually much higher, when it isnonionic [40,41]. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------Page 3 Surfactants: Part 1: Overview On Their Physical ProperesJ. Saudi Chem. Soc., Vol. 12, No. 4491The unusual properes of aqueous surfactantsoluons can be ascribed to the presence of ahydrophilic group
 
and a hydrophobic chain (ortail) in the molecule. The hydrocarbon chaininteracts weakly with water molecules in anaqueous environment, whereas. The polar or ionichead group usually interacts strongly with anaqueous environment, in which case it is solvatedvia dipole-dipole or ion-dipole interacons [42].3 Natural SurfactantsIt is not exaggeraon to say that the life aswe know it would not be possible withoutsurfactants. Naturally occurring surfactants play aliterally vital role in living organisms. They areable to perform these roles only because they canself-aggregate into species, namely micelles,bilayers and liquid crystals. Cell membranescomposed mainly of amphiphiles, which are self-assembled into a bilayer structure with themolecules oriented so that the hydrophilic groupsare on the outside of the membrane and thehydrophobic groups avoid contact with theaqueous regions by being packed closely togetherinside the membrane. In mammalian cells, theprimary amphiphiles are phospholipids, which arederivaves of glycerol esters with long-chain fayacids, Table 1 [43]. In milk, the fat is mainly in the form origlycerides but a small amount is present asphospholipids and diglycerides, which aresurfactants that help to stabilize the emulsion inwater. During digeson fats are converted intomore soluble species, which can be transportedaround the body more readily. A variety ofsurfactants are involved at dierent stages duringthis digesve process. Bile salts are surfactants produced in theliver and stored in the gall-bladder. A typicalexample is sodium glycocholate whose structureis shown in Table 1. In the blood stream the fayacids leave these surfactant complexes to combinewith proteins such as serum albumin to formlipoproteins, which self-organize into speciessuitable for transport to various desnaonsaround the body [43].Table 1: Examples of naturally occurring surfactants*TypeStructureOccurrencePhospholipidsR CO O CH2CHCH2O P O XO-OOCORX = HX= CH2CH2 NH3+X = CH2 CH2 N+(CH3)3Cell membraneFay acidsR–CO–OHSebum IntesnesBile saltsNHCH2COO-Na+OHHOOHOSodium glycocholateGall-bladderIntesnes*R represents mixtures of saturated and unsaturated linear alkyl groups with chain lengths in range C10-C20. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------Page 4 Hamad A. Al-Lohedan and Fawzia F. Al-BlewiJ. Saudi Chem. Soc., Vol. 12, No. 44924 General Classicaons of SurfactantsA simple classicaon of surfactants basedon the nature of the hydrophilic group iscommonly used. The main classes may be disn-guished, namely anionic, caonic, nonionic andamphoteric, Table 2 gives some examples ontheses classes [42]. A useful reference isMcCutcheon [44], which is produced annually toupdate the list of available surfactants. Van Os etal. have listed the physicochemical properes ofselected anionic, caonic and nonionic surfactants[45]. In addion, another class of surfactants,usually referred to as polymeric surfactants, haslong been used for the preparaon of emulsionsand suspensions and their stabilizaon [37].Fluorocarbon and silicone surfactantsrepresent a special class of surfactants [46,47].These surfactants can lower the surface tension ofwater to below 20 mN m-1 (most surfactants lowerthe surface tension of water to values above 20mN m-1). Fluorocarbon and silicone surfactantsare somemes referred to as superweers as theycause enhanced weng and spreading of theiraqueous soluon. However, they much moreexpensive than convenonal surfactants and areonly applied for specic applicaons whereby thelow surface tension is a desirable property [37].Biosurfactants are surface acve compoundsproduced by microorganisms. Most microbialsurfactants are complex molecules,

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