Nonionic surfactants derived from a new hydrophobic base

Summary A versatile new class of nonionic surfactants has been prepared essentially from ethylene and propylene oxides. The new products are based upon the discovery that a polyoxypropylene glycol having a molecular weight of approximately 900 or higher will function as the hydrophobic unit of a nonionic surfactant which may presumably be represented as HO (C₂H₄O)_a (C₃H₆O)_b (CH₂O₄)_cH. By selection of a polyoxypropylene glycol having a suitable molecular weight and by adjusting the weight ratio of oxypropylene to oxyethylene units in the product, nonionics have been prepared which range in physical form from liquids to solids which are sufficiently hard that they may be flaked. The possibility of wide variation in the molecular weight of the hydrophobic unit and in the weight ratio of the hydrophobic to hydrophilic units in the molecules allows extensive tailoring of the products to give specific control of properties such as solubility in water, detergency, wetting action, and surface tension lowering. Presented at 25th annual fall meeting, American Oil Chemists' Society, Chicago, Ill., Oct. 8–10, 1951.