Solution Structures in Mixtures of an Oleo-furan Sulfonate with Anionic and Nonionic Surfactants

Anionic surfactants such as linear alkylbenzene sulfonate (LAS) and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) are the most used and best characterised commercial surfactants used in detergent products but can involve the use of petrochemicals or expensive oil feedstocks in their synthesis, making them an unsustainable option for the future. This has led industries to try to move towards more biobased and renewable surfactants, however none of these are yet scalable to the extent of current commercial surfactants due to high production costs and/or reduced performance. This research is focused on comparisons between different ring-based surfactants to understand the influence of the cyclic moiety on the packing and arrangement of the surfactant in dilute solutions.