Applied Surfactants

Book excerpt: While currently available titles either focus on the basics or on very specific subtopics, this text meets the need for a comprehensive survey of surfactants and their properties, with a strong emphasis on applications and their correlation to the fundamentals. The author covers their classification, physical properties, phase behavior, adsorption, effects - such as wetting, spreading and adhesion - as well as industrial applications in personal care and cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals and food products. Professor Tadros is a well-known expert on the topic of surfactants, with much experience in colloid science. Here, he uses his industrial experience to close the gap between fundamentals of surfactants and their relevance and applications in practice.