The Effect of Electrolyte on Interfacial Structures of Oleo-Furan Sulfonate Surfactants in Mixtures at the Air-Water Interface

Anionic surfactants such as linear alkylbenzene sulfonate (LAS) are the most used and best characterised commercial surfactants used in detergent products but can involve the use of petrochemicals, toxic catalysts or expensive feedstocks, 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 a bio-sourced ring-based anionic surfactant that has been shown to have high performance and high tolerance for hard water ions when alone in solution. We will investigate how the composition at the air-water interface, in mixed solutions of the anionic surfactant with a standard non-ionic surfactant, are affected upon the addition of mono- and di-valent electrolyte ions.