Natural Surfactants

Natural surfactants

The ever-increasing environmental concern about surfactants triggers an interest in natural surfactant. This review, which has an emphasis on work published since 1998, covers three categories of natural surfactants: amphiphiles produced by yeast or bacteria, amphiphiles containing a natural polar headgroup and amphiphiles containing a natural hydrophobic tail. Microorganisms produce both high ...

Natural Surfactants for Pharmaceutical Emulsions

Frog foams and natural protein surfactants

Foams and surfactants are relatively rare in biology because of their potential to harm cell membranes and other delicate tissues. However, in recent work we have identified and characterized a number of natural surfactant proteins found in the foam nests of tropical frogs and other unusual sources. These proteins, and their associated foams, are relatively stable and bio-compatible, but with i...

Surfactants Analysis from Natural Waters Using Nonfaradaic Processes

Voltammetric measurements of dissolved surface-active substances in aqueous solutions, as specific commercial detergents, are described in the present paper. Two voltammetric methods based on the adsorption phenomena at mercury electrode/aqueous solution interface were performed in order to obtain the analytical signal for the detergent analysis. The first method was direct current polarography...

Natural Surfactants for Flotation Deinking in Paper Recycling

The objective of this research was to evaluate new types of surfactants based on renewable materials (sugar and protein-based surfactants) for use in ink removal from recycled paper via flotation deinking. By applying green chemistry approaches we aim to minimize the environmental impact of deinking agents and also to open an avenue for a number of products that are to be generated from the uti...