Product Finder

Month: August 2026

August 28, 2026

Sustainability and Tailored Performance Can Be a Reality, A Review of Bioderived and Bio-Produced Surfactants

Publications
Household & Industrial
Oil & Gas
Personal Care

A trend towards biorenewability and sustainability has incentivized the increased commercialization of natural classes of surfactants; bioderived (e.g., alkyl polyglucosides) and bio-produced (e.g., sophorolipids and rhamnolipids). Bio-based surfactants also offer the formulator marketing advantages around renewable carbon or bio-based formula content and less reliance on petroleum-based ingredients. They demonstrate favorable safety profiles including low skin irritation, as well as negative sensitization, and genotoxicity results. Sophorolipids and rhamnolipids are capable of significant surface activity and antimicrobial properties. However, there are also limitations involved when dealing with bio-produced surfactants including an inefficient manufacturing process, high-priced material, and lack of application flexibility. In contrast, alkyl polyglucosides, are versatile and can be further functionalized synthetically allowing the chemistry to be geared towards specific applications. Additionally, functionalized alkyl polyglucosides can also be altered to different ionic classes of surfactants such as anionic, amphoteric or cationic. This allows them to compete with petroleum-based surfactants in many industries in terms of performance while enhancing sustainability. This article explores bio-based surfactants, their advantages and limitations.

Read the Article Here:

Read Here

Cited:

Lucas R. Moore, Barae Jomaa, Garret Bryant, Zechariah Avello

Sustainability and Tailored Performance Can Be a Reality, A Review of Bioderived and Bio-Produced Surfactants. Journal of Surfactants and Detergents (2026)

https://doi.org/10.1002/jsde.70093

August 20, 2026

The Chemistry of Ether Carboxylates – Part Two

Blog
Industrial Lubricant Additives
Oil & Gas

Part II: The Chemistry of Ether Carboxylates

Ether carboxylates can be produced through several routes, but they are most commonly manufactured by Williamson ether synthesis using alkoxylates (alcohols) and a strong base to introduce the terminal carboxymethyl group. This process has several drawbacks, including relatively low yield (about 90%), the use of sodium chloroacetate which brings in a classified hazardous material, formation of organic by-products such as diglycolic and glycolic acids, and generation of significant, aqueous inorganic salt waste. Although alternative processes may offer higher yields and fewer by-products, etherification remains the most cost-effective route because it is easier to scale and provides a high degree of carboxymethylation. The structure and alkoxylation pattern of the starting alkoxylate, along with the base used, directly affect the final product composition and performance.


In general, the Williamson etherification process produces the corresponding ether carboxylic acid after acidification and removal of aqueous waste. At the customer’s request, the acid form can be converted to salt through neutralization with alkaline hydroxides or amines, often with intentionally added water.


Key quality indicators include acid value, degree of carboxymethylation, residual water content, and residual inorganic salts. In most, if not all, commercial ether carboxylic acid products, the final material contains the acid or salt form together with unreacted alkoxylate substrate. The acid value directly indicates the degree of etherification when compared with the estimated theoretical acid value. As noted above, the alkoxylate substrate and base selection affect the product’s acid value.


Commercial ether carboxylates typically contain low levels of inorganic salts, generally below 1 wt%. For applications requiring ultra-low inorganic salt content, an additional aqueous wash is needed, which significantly increases production cost and can reduce yield.


In addition to inorganic salts, ether carboxylates typically contain organic acid impurities, such as glycolic acid and diglycolic acid. The levels of these impurities vary by supplier and product. Academic and industrial research has explored ways to reduce hydroxylation and dimerization of chloroacetic acid, but neither side reaction has been shown to be completely avoidable.


Overall, etherification remains the primary manufacturing process after balancing performance, cost, scalability, and impurity considerations. In addition to the intended acid component, ether carboxylates contain unreacted alkoxylates, minor organic by-products, and residual inorganic salts.

August 5, 2026

Salt-Free Thickening (A Slight Return)

Blog
Personal Care

First of all, I want to thank everyone for their valuable feedback on the blog. It really does help us tailor content for your specific formulation needs. Please keep that feedback coming, either to [email protected] or to me at [email protected]

Missing Details

Our salt-free series generated interesting feedback, and I also realized that there was an important point that I glossed over quickly regarding how to thicken these formulations. Using anionic surfactants as primary surfactants is deeply entrenched in the industry, and for good reasons. They tend to have relatively compact head groups and long aliphatic tails (the classic tadpole), making them outstanding foamers and detergents. They also have a very high potential to form wormlike micelles which are needed for surfactant thickening.

There’s one thing that stands in the way of anionic surfactants readily forming wormlike micelles at low concentration: since all the surfactant heads are the same charge, they repel each other and the surfactant monomers cannot pack closely enough to facilitate the transition to wormlike micelles. There are two methods for fixing this fundamental property:

Electrolyte Addition

Adding electrolytes, usually in the form of Sodium Chloride (though advanced formulations may incorporate alternative salts) reduces the electrostatic repulsion between anionic head groups and facilitates the transition to wormlike micelles and highly viscous solutions at relatively low concentrations. A traditional surfactant like Sodium Lauryl Sulfate will generate substantial viscosity at 10% active matter or less with sufficient addition of electrolytes. But the amount tends to be quite high relative to the amount of surfactant and the aesthetics of SLS by itself are not conducive to a product with a high degree of consumer delight.

Secondary Surfactants

Another way to facilitate the transition to wormlike micelles at relatively low surfactant concentration is through the addition of a wide variety of secondary surfactants. Their efficacy is variable but the effect is the same; they reduce electrostatic repulsion between anionic head groups and ensure viscous solutions are achievable. Most commonly the secondary surfactant system is a combination of amphoteric and nonionic chemistries, allowing for extremely high efficiency and outstanding aesthetics.

Specific effects of secondary surfactants can vary from subtly shifting the salt curve toward lower salt addition or dramatically increasing the overall viscosity performance, widening or narrowing the salt curve, and dramatically shifting the salt curve. Specific formulation goals will help dictate which secondaries to use and how much. There are few hard and fast rules here and it’s mostly left to the formulator’s discretion how they want to approach this.

The Surfactant Triad

In a forthcoming webinar I’ll be discussing in more detail what I call The Surfactant Triad, a practically ideal combination of anionic, amphoteric, and nonionic chemistries that become the basis almost all personal care cleansing formulations. In “Low-No Salt Shampoos Part 3” I mentioned the use of nonionics as key additives for those systems. This is due to their potent ability to shift the salt curve so that no additional salt is needed to achieved the desired aesthetics. While rare, there are commercial examples of products that have been streamlined down to simply an anionic and nonionic surfactant together to achieve good aesthetics for body wash. The most commonly used nonionics are alkanolamides like Cocamide MIPA (Cola®Mid CFPA) or Cocamide DIPA (Cola®Liquid DC-5) but I have helped formulators use more unique ingredients like Glyceryl Laurate (Colonial Monolaurin) and Polyglyceryl-3 Oleate (Cola®Mulse 3GO) as more potent and mutli-functional additives. Additionally, we have explored non-traditional amphoterics in depth via two posters and a webinar as potent viscosity boosters that can also quite dramatically shift the salt curve toward low or no salt addition.

Conclusion

I don’t expect the number of formulator requests for improved foam and higher viscosity in “sulfate-free” systems to decrease any time soon. Adding “salt-free” as a claim on top creates a new level of difficulty and challenges that few formulators are prepared to handle. I hope this provides some additional insight into how to tackle these challenges. As always, we eagerly anticipate your feedback.