Surfactants (a contraction of the term surface active agents) are large volume chemicals; their annual production exceeds 5 million tons worldwide. They are primarily used as cleaning agents in laundry and dish-washing applications. Surfactants are also applied in cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, in manufacturing textiles and fibres, in the food industry, in paints and plastics, in the paper industry, in pesticides, and in the oil production process. Surfactants have a dualistic character; they possess a hydrophilic headgroup and a hydrophobic tail. In water, surfactants form aggregates in which the headgroups point towards water and the tails stick together. Classic types of surfactants are produced from petrochemical raw materials. In the long term, fossil feedstocks will be exhausted and products based on renewable materials will become more important. Growing consumer demands for "natural" products have also directed the search for new surfactants towards renewable sources. Therefore, our aim was to synthesize new, readily biodegradable, and nontoxic surfactants starting from renewable materials by routes that should be possible on a large scale. We based our surfactants on carbohydrates, fatty arnines, and anhydrides. The.carboxylic anhydrides can be prepared from naturally occurring fatty acids. An additional benefit of applying carbohydrates is the creation of a new markets for the abundant agricultural (by)products they are produced from. The two starting carbohydrates used in this thesis are glucose, derived from starch, and lactose, which is obtained from whey.
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