Existing surfactants directories tend to focus on product identification by tradename, producer or chemical type, enabling the user only to identify product equivalents and surfactant suppliers. Application information, where available, is usually scant or given as a footnote. This new directory approaches the identification of surfactants primarily from the applications standpoint. Hence the formulator or end-user can readily assess the products available for use in a particular industry sector and select materials giving the required surface active properties. For example, a formulator of...

The awareness and development of 'biodegradable' surfactants pre-dates current pressures by the environmental movement by nearly three decades, wherein a responsible industry mutually agreed to replace 'hard', non-biodegradable com- ponents of household detergents by 'soft', biodegradable alternatives, without course to legislation. The only requirement at that time was for surfactants used in detergents to exhibit a 'primary biodegradability' in excess of 80%; this referring to the disap- pearance or removal from solution of the intact surface active material as de- tected by specified...