Anionic Surfactant Ingredients or Chemicals
Description of Anionic Surfactant: surfactants (Surface Active Ingredients) are ingredients used to reduce the surface tension between different substances. They function in many different ways such as dispersants, emulsifiers, detergents, wetting agents and foaming agents. Almost all Surfactants have the same structure, a long, hydrophobic tail and a hydrophilic head. The tails are very similar in most surfactants, the difference lies mainly in the hydrophilic head. This head can either be nonionic, anionic, cationic or amphoteric.
Anionic Surfactants contain a negatively charged head, this aids in the formation of stable micelles. When mixed with water, this class of surfactants creates a lot of foam. Common Anionic Surfactants are sulfates, like SLS (Sodium Lauryl Sulfate) or SLES. Anionic surfactants are mostly used in soaps (for example Ssucate DSL30) and detergents (for example PhosEster 2EH 3EO) where a high quantity of foam is desired. A disadvantage of most Anionic Surfactants is that they are less suited for oily emulsions, they also cannot be used in combination with Cationic Surfactants.