Application of Surfactants – Fatty Amine Ethoxylates

Surfactants are the surface active agents that are widely used in form of cleansing agents, emulsifiers
and wetting agents for various applications in industries. They can be used in formation of other
surfactant products or derivatives and are often employed in processes as solubilizing and coupling
agents, fiber lubricants and dyeing assists in textile processes, leveling agents and in various other
applications.

Talking about the surfactant products widely used in industries, ethoxylates are widely used in industries
as surfactants. Ethoxylates derived from ethoxylation of substances like fatty alcohols, fatty acids or
amines are employed in industries for applications like cleaning, emulsifying, wetting, scouring etc. Let
us now have a look at the fatty amine ethoxylate surfactants used in industrial processes.

What are Fatty Amine Ethoxylates and Where are They Used?

Fatty amine ethoxylates are nonionic

surfactants used as wetting and dispersing
agents, stabilizers, sanitizers and defoaming
agents in various industries like textile, paper,
drilling, chemical, paint, metal etc. The fatty
amine ethoxylates are used as emulsifiers
and can also be employed in formulation of
emulsifier blends. They play an important
role as emulsifiers in agrochemical industries,
cleaners in industrial processes especially in metal industry, oil field chemicals, fabric softeners,
petroleum additives and for applications in textile and leather processing, paper de-inking, mining &
drilling.
How are Fatty Amines Ethoxylates Formulated?

Production of fatty amines ethoxylate products takes place when the amines like amino acids, tallow
amines, oleyl amine, coco amine, stearyl amines etc are made to react with ethylene oxide in presence
of a catalyst in ethoxylation process. Fatty amines are nitrogen derivatives of fatty acids, olefins, or
alcohols prepared from natural sources, fats and oils, or petrochemical raw materials. The commercially
available fatty amines are prepared by either distillation of fatty acids or when fatty alcohols are reacted
with ammonia or primary, secondary amines.

Types of Fatty Amine Ethoxylates

Some of the popular forms of ethoxylated amines widely used in industrial processes include the tallow
amines, coco amines, stearyl amines and oleyl amines.

The popular product used for soaps, leather dressings, candles, food, and lubricant applications in
industries, tallow amine ethoxylate is derived from ethoxylation of tallow amine which is prepared from
tallow, a hard fat usually extracted from fatty deposits of animals. Tallow consists chiefly of glyceryl
esters of oleic, palmitic, and stearic acids.

The oleyl amine ethoxylates are best used in textile applications. With high affinity for surfaces these
products are good for coating applications and as such are used for coating cloth, yarn etc. They are
good emulsifiers and are used in many cleaning and detergent formulations due to their antistatic
behaviour and dispersing abilities. In the similar way stearyl amine ethoxylates and coco amine
ethoxylates are the two other widely used industrial surfactant products employed in different forms for
various applications in diverse industries.
Those looking to buy high quality surfactants for industrial applications, can get them at most
competitive prices from Rimpro. Rimpro-India is one of the leading suppliers of oilfield chemicals,
surfactants, cosmetic waxes and specialty chemicals in India.

Source by: http://www.rimpro-india.com/articles1/143-application-of-surfactants-%E2%80%93-fatty-

amine-ethoxylates.html