ABSTRACT
There are a number of synthetic surfactants that because of the peculiarities of the building blocks offer unusual and exceptional properties compared to the traditional structures based on a fatty acid, alcohol, or amine; linear alkyl benzene or linear paraffin ethylene; or propylene oxide or SO3. All these surfactants were first synthesised between the 1930s and the 1950s but remained laboratory curiosities until the emergence of products demanding their unique effects. Surfactants derived from an acetylenic hydrophobe produce extremely low dynamic surface tensions and, as such, find applications as dispersants in printing inks. Silicone surfactants produced initially by esterification and today almost exclusively by the hydrosilylation of a polysiloxane backbone reduce the interfacial tension of urethane pre-polymers and polyols and are irreplaceable in the formulation of low-density foams. Fluorosurfactants can lower the surface tension of aqueous systems to below 20 mN/m and are effective at exceptionally low concentrations.
