Surfactant and its past and present

Experiments have found that when some substances are added to water, the surface tension of water can be changed. Different substances added have different effects on the surface tension of water. As far as the property of reducing the surface tension is concerned, we call the property that can reduce the surface tension of the solvent as surface activity, and the substance with surface activity is called surface-active substance. We add a small amount of substances that can significantly change the interface state of the solution system, called surfactants. A surfactant is a substance that, when added in a small amount to a solvent, can significantly reduce its surface tension and change the interfacial state of the system, resulting in wetting or dewetting, emulsification or demulsification, dispersion or aggregation, foaming or A series of functions such as defoaming, solubilization, moisturizing, sterilization, softness, water repellency, antistatic, anticorrosion, etc., to meet actual needs. Soap-based surfactants were first discovered in ancient Egypt around 2500 BC. The ancient Egyptians used a mixture of suet and plant ash to make cleaning products. Around AD 70, Pliny of the Roman Empire made the first piece of suet. soap. It was not until 1971 that French chemist Lu Bulan discovered the method of producing caustic soda by electrolysis of sodium chloride, and soap became popular. The product of the second period of surfactant development is Turkey Red Oil (Turkey Red Oil), also known as Taigu Oil, which is made by reacting castor and concentrated sulfuric acid at a lower temperature, and then neutralized by sodium hydroxide. The emulsifying, penetrating, wetting, and diffusing properties of Turkish red oil are excellent, and its resistance to hard water, acid, and metal salts is better than soap2.