Forecasting the cloud point of alkoxylated nonionic surfactants

The highest effectiveness of detergency for nonionic surfactants is observed in the proximity of the cloud point. This phenomenon is primarily influenced by surfactant molecular structure, such as carbon chain length and type of the hydrophilic components. Target of this investigation is to identify a relationship between the cloud point and the structure of nonionic surfactants based on ethoxylated (C_nE_m), ethoxylated-propoxylated (C_nE_mP_p) and propoxylated-ethoxylated (C_nP_pE_m) fatty alcohols. Three hundred and fifty nonionic surfactants have been prepared for this purpose. These surfactants differ in the C-chain lengths, C₄/C₆ to C₂₀/C₂₂, and the amount of ethylene oxide (EO range n] 2–22 ethoxylation) and propylene oxide (PO range p] 0–12 propoxylation) moieties. Mapping the differences in the performance allows us to propose a high-accuracy topological model describing the structure influence on the cloud point.