In preparing the second edition of this book, I have revised, updated and extended the original material, with particular attention to two areas of the book where there has been considerable publication of new material. The chapters on the use of surfactant theory and polymeric surfactants have been completely rewritten. Surfactant theory has seen considerable progress in the 1980s, but it is only in the last few years that it has been simplified such that it can be used in helping to formulate compositions containing surfactants in different applications. It must be admitted that even now...

In preparing the second edition of this book, I have revised, updated and extended the original material, with particular attention to two areas of the book where there has been considerable publication of new material. The chapters on the use of surfactant theory and polymeric surfactants have been completely rewritten. Surfactant theory has seen considerable progress in the 1980s, but it is only in the last few years that it has been simplified such that it can be used in helping to formulate compositions containing surfactants in different applications. It must be admitted that even now...

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...