ABSTRACT
Introduction Soap and toilet soap, as traditional anionic surfactants, have been produced in China since 1903. The first nonionic surfactant, castor oil polyethoxy ether, was developed in 1956, and in 1958, a detergent based on an anionic surfactant entered the market. Cationic surfactants were produced next in Shanghai and Dalian 20 years later, and since 1978 the amphoteric surfactant BS-12 has been produced on a commercial scale. From then on, the surfactant field-production volumes, variety, and consumption-has developed rapidly.
