ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to give a practical insight into the chemical synthesis, processing methods, and composition of polyol fatty acid ester surfactants. These materials are among the most common surfactant types because esterification is one of the easiest chemical reactions to carry out. The ready availability of polyols such as glycerol, sorbitol, sugars, and ethoxylated feedstocks, in addition to a wide variety of fatty acid materials, ensures that a multiplicity of products can be tailored for many application needs. However, control over processing conditions, and hence over the final product composition, can give rise to very subtle variations in performance. In addition, as all commercially available materials are mixtures and exact processing pathways can be difficult to interpolate, precise structure–activity relationships for any particular application must be treated with a great deal of caution. Following an overview of current products and processes, a short survey of the emerging technology of enzyme esterification is also given.
