Synthesis and Surface Activities of Novel Succinic Acid Monofluoroalkyl Sulfonate Surfactants

Two environmentally friendly succinic acid monofluoroalkyl sulfonate surfactants were synthesized from maleic anhydride and polyethylene glycol mono (1H,1H,7H‐dodecafluoroheptyl) ether, i.e. H(CF₂)₆CH₂OCH₂CH₂OCOCH(SO₃Na)CH₂COOH (FEOS‐1) and H(CF₂)₆CH₂(OCH₂CH₂)₃OCOCH(SO₃Na)CH₂COOH (FEOS‐3). The obtained surfactants were characterized by FT‐IR, ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR and ¹⁹F NMR in detail. The synthesized fluorinated surfactants have a high thermal stability on the basis of thermogravimetric analysis. Their surface properties were examined and the results show that FEOS‐1 and FEOS‐3 surfactants can reduce the surface tension of water to 25.55 mN m^?1 at 10.25 mmol L^?1 and 21.63 mN m^?1 at 8.33 mmol L^?1, respectively; meanwhile, the introduction of oxyethylene groups enhances the hydrophilicity and micellar forming ability and the longer oxyethylene chains the better surface properties. The Krafft points (K_p) of FEOS‐1 and FEOS‐3 were both below 0 °C, which was lower than perfluoro‐n‐heptanesulfonic acid sodium salt (n‐C₇F₁₅SO₃Na, K_p = 56.5 °C) at a similar length of fluorocarbon chains. Comparison studies on two surfactants above and the conventional fluorocarbon surfactants, perfluorooctanoate of ammonium (PFOA) show that the surfactants have comparable properties to PFOA, thus offering an environmentally friendly synthesizing alternatives to PFOA.