The Aqueous Phase Behavior of Surfactants

Are you concerned with soaps, detergents, the biological polar lipids, or other surfactant-containing mixtures? Have you ever encountered problems in dissolving such materials, or found that they change from nicely crystalline to sticky, viscous, difficult-to-handle phases when water is added or the temperature is increases? Are you interested in the experimental data related to the "self-assembly" of amphiphilic compounds? If so, this book aims to answer these questions. The phase states in which surfactants may exist constitute an important dimension of their physical science. The phase diagram of an aqueous surfactant system aims to tell you what state (crystal, liquid, or liquid crystal) in which a mixture should exist (at equilibrium) at any composition and temperature within the diagram. If your mixture is not in that state, then you must confront kinetic properties such as the rate (and perhaps also the mechanism) at which equilibrium is attained in your system. This book aims to enable the reader to review (in either a selective or a comprehensive manner) the elements of thermodynamics and phase science that are most relevant to understanding the phase behaviour of aqueous surfactant systems, and also of ternary systems containing as well an electrolyte or an oil (polar or non-polar). It also provides a review of the structures of the phases that surfactants form, and a description of the optical and rheological properties of these distinctive phases. It should help anticipate the form of phase diagrams of surfactant systems (which are illustrated using. representative diagrams), and the relative composition and temperature ranges within which the various states exist. Finally, it provides references to the presently existing literature of aqueous surfactant science. In sum, this book should help you to not only master the fundamentals of phase science, but also to use this science to diagnose those features of the physical science of aqueous surfactant mixtures that are related to their phase behaviour.

Table of Contents:
Part 1 Background: The role of Phase Science Within Physical Science. Part 2 Physical Chemistry: The Thermodynamics of Partial Miscibility. Phase Diagrams and the Phase Rule. The Characteristic Features of Surfactant Phase Behaviour. The Kinetic and Mechanistic Aspects of Surfactant Phase Behaviour. Surfactant Phase Behaviour and Relative Humidity. Part 3 Structural Chemistry: The Structures and Properties of Surfactant Phases. Part 4 Molecular Correlations: Surfactant and Non-surfactant Behaviour in Amphiphilic Molecules. Hydrophilicity and Proximate Substituent Effects on Phase Behaviour. Lipophilicity, Remote Substituent Effects and HLB. The Influence of Third Components on Aqueous Surfactant Phase Behaviour. Part 5 The Miscellaneous: The Relationship of the Physical Science of Surfactants to Their Utility. A History of Surfactant Phase Science. Appendixes: Glossary and Definitions of Acronyms and Thermodynamic Symbols; Literature References to Binary and Tenary Phase Studies; Extracting, Graphing and Using Data from Published Diagrams; The Determination of Phase Diagrams.