Succinylation of Non-ionic Surfactants: Physicochemical Characterization, Functional Properties, Biodegradability and Mathematical Modeling of the Polarity Tuning

摘要

Anionic surfactants comprising succinic acid end groups were synthesized by succinylation of non-ionic surfactants using succinic anhydride as a potentially bio-sourced building block. A solvent- and catalyst-free synthesis was designed for succinic anhydride mono esterifi-cation with octyl-, decyl and dodecylpolyxylosides, di- and tetrad hylene glycol dodecylethers and glycerol monolau-rate. The physicochemical and functional properties of anionic surfactants thus obtained were studied and compared with their non-succinylated counterparts. A correlation between these properties and the polarity changes induced by the addition of the hydrophilic succinic acid moiety was established. The biodegradability of the succ-inylated surfactants has also been investigated. Finally, through a desirability function approach, mathematic predictions were correlated to the properties in order to find an optimum and to discriminate surfactants with respect to targeted physicochemical properties arid resulting applications.