Surfactant Interactions Observed Through HLD

Michael T. Warren, Ben Shiau, Jeffrey Harwell

A growing market of applications often require mixtures of surfactants of various concentrations

and functionality; being either nonionic or anionic in nature that in some cases show nonideal behavior.
The Hydrophilic Lipophilic Deviation is a powerful tool for understanding the specific surfactant
interactions and subsequent properties in solution through phase behavior experiments. The HLD
parameters, K and Cc, have been shown to reflect the underlying hydrophile and lipophile interactions
through years of phase behavior experimentation of numerous industrial surfactants. In this work we
provide evidence that the hydrophile of the surfactants have a part in the sharing of interfacial water,
where the most prominent nonideality is found of mixtures of anionic and nonionic surfactants. Overall,
mixed surfactant solutions tend to behave more hydrophobic than expected but can be neglected at
certain molar ratios. Likewise for the lipophile interaction, K, indicative of the surfactants behavior with
a nonpolar oil has become an important term in understanding the surfactant or solutions overall
moiety. Extracted K’s from phase behavior experiments have shown to agree with known 2D NMR work
as well as correlates with the surfactants CMC and solubilization capacity. Further we will show that K’s
from anionic and nonionic surfactants can be related conveniently using the number of carbons on the
lipophile. Conclusion? 40 words left