Surfactants and Interfaces

Dear Colleagues,

From year to year, the demand for synthetic surfactants of natural origin, and those produced by bacteria and fungi, is greater and greater. This is closely related to the effects of these surface active agents on the liquid–gas, liquid–liquid, solid–gas, and solid–liquid interface properties. The adsorption of surfactants at the liquid–gas and liquid–liquid interfaces results in interface tension reduction, but that at the solid–gas and solid–liquid interfaces can cause both a decrease and increase in the interface tension, and in some cases, it does not cause any changes in interface tension. As a matter of fact, adsorption at various interfaces is associated with the amphiphilic structure of the surfactant molecules. The result of adsorption is the formation of interface layers of specific properties, which depend on the kind of surfactant, the size of its molecules, and the orientation at the interface and the kind of interface. The properties of the adsorption layers at the interfaces are closely related to the practical application of surfactants in washing, solubilization, emulsification, and foaming. Indeed, for practical application, there are no single surfactants, but their mixtures of different compositions depending on the required properties of the adsorption layers, e.g., density, elasticity, hydrophobicity, hydrophilicity, etc. This Special Issue aims to present the latest achievements regarding the mechanism of the adsorption processes at the interfaces, their thermodynamics, and the physicochemical properties of the obtained adsorption layers.

You may choose our Joint Special Issue in Molecules.

Prof. Dr. Bronisław Jańczuk
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Colloids and Interfaces is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• adsorption
• aggregation
• wettability
• solubilization
• foaming
• emulsification