10 Things to Consider When Buying Non Ionic Surfactant Solution

Introduction

Shampoo is one of the most widely used personal care products. To produce high-quality shampoo, using the right ingredients in the proper proportions is essential. Among all the ingredients in shampoo, surfactants are the core ingredients, as they contribute most to the fundamental function of shampoos, which is cleaning our hair and scalp.

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Surfactants in shampoos help to clean our hair and scalp by acting as a foaming agent and cleansing agent. Surfactants can create a rich lather when the shampoo is applied for hair washing, and the lather helps distribute the shampoo evenly through the hair, ensuring that all parts of the scalp and hair are cleaned thoroughly. Surfactants act as a cleansing agent in the way of lowering the surface tension of water and their hydrophobic tails bind to the dirt and grease, while their hydrophilic heads interact with the water in the cleaning solution. This combination allows surfactants to emulsify and lift off dirt and grease particles from our hair and scalp, effectively cleaning it.

Surfactants can also contribute as a conditioning agent and a shampoo body texture enhancer.

However, so many surfactants are available on the market, and not all surfactants are created equal. Choosing the right one can make all the difference. This article will discuss how to choose the best surfactants for shampoo manufacturing.

Understanding Surfactants

Surfactants, short for 'surface active agents,' are compounds that are used in a variety of applications to reduce the surface tension between two different substances. They have both hydrophilic (water-loving) and hydrophobic (water-fearing) properties, which allows them to interact with both water and oil-based compounds.

Surfactants can be found in many everyday products, such as detergents, shampoos, soaps, and cleaning agents. They are also widely used in the industries of food, pharmacies, plastics, paper, and textiles. Surfactants can be classified into four main categories: anionic, cationic, nonionic, and amphoteric.

Anionic Surfactants

Anionic surfactants are surfactants that have a negatively charged functional group, and they are the most common type of surfactant used in shampoo manufacturing. They are known for their strong cleaning ability and lathering properties. Examples of anionic surfactants used in shampoo include sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) and sodium laureth sulfate (SLES). However, these surfactants can be harsh on the scalp and hair, leading to dryness and irritation. So in recent years, there is a trend of replacing SLS and SLES with more gentle anionic surfactants, such as amino acid surfactants, to achieve 'sulfate-free' shampoos.

Cationic Surfactants

Contrary to Anionic surfactants, Cationic surfactants are positively charged. They have good bactericidal and anti-static properties. So they are commonly used as a disinfectant and conditioning agent in a variety of home care and personal care products. Typical Cationic surfactants include Cetyltrimethylammonium chloride and Benzalkonium chlorid.

However, Cationic surfactants will interact with the Anionic surfactants and, in many cases combine to form an insoluble salt. So in shampoo formulations, where Anionic surfactants commonly exist, traditional Cationic surfactants can not be used. Cationic polymers are used in this case to offer conditioning properties and to formulate 2-in-1 shampoos.

Nonionic Surfactants

Nonionic surfactants do not carry an electrical charge and they are generally less harsh than other types of surfactants. They are used in shampoo and other personal care formulations for their mildness and their outstanding ability to create a rich and creamy lather. Additonaly, Nonionic surfactants often have good thickening ability which can help to build a thick body texture for the shampoo. Examples of nonionic surfactants used in shampoo include cocamide DEA and Cocamide MEA.

However, there are some Nonionic surfactants that don't have these favorable properties to use in shampoos. They are Alcohol ethoxylates(common examples are AEO-7 and AEO-9) and Alkylphenol ethoxylates(common examples are NP9 and NP10). They are harsh on the skin; they are defoaming; and they do not help to thicken a solution.

Amphoteric Surfactants

Amphoteric surfactants, also known as zwitterionic surfactants, have both positive and negative charges and can behave as either anionic or cationic, depending on the pH of the solution.

They are becoming more commonly used in shampoo formulations and other personal care products, due to their ability to decrease the irritancy of the formulation while increasing the active content level. Amphoteric surfactants also provide thickening and conditioning properties.

Examples of Amphoteric surfactants commonly used in shampoo include Cocamidopropyl Betaine, and Cocamidopropylamine Oxide.

Factors to Consider When Choosing Surfactants

When selecting surfactants for shampoo manufacturing, it is essential to consider several factors, including:

Cleansing performance

Surfactants are primarily responsible for cleansing the hair and scalp. Therefore, it is important to choose a surfactant that can effectively remove dirt and grease from our hair and scalp yet without leaving the hair feeling dry or stripped.

Foaming performance

The foam produced by the surfactant helps distribute the shampoo through the hair and scalp evenly and holds dirt and oil in suspension for easy rinse offer with water. A rich foam also provides a pleasant user experience. Therefore, a surfactant that produces a rich and stable foam is desirable.

Mildness

Some surfactants can potentially cause irritation to the skin, scalp, and eyes, so it's crucial to choose a mild surfactant that is gentle and non-irritating. Sodium lauryl sulfate or SLS has excellent foaming and cleansing properties and was once a top choice as a shampoo surfactant. However, in recent years, it's been increasingly criticized to be irritating, and its place has been taken by milder alternatives including Sodium laureth sulfate(SLES), Alpha Olefin Sulphonate, and Amino acid surfactants.

Thickness and Viscosity

Thickness and viscosity determine the body texture of a shampoo, which is very crucial for the success of a shampoo product. A proper thick and viscous body is good for applying the shampoo to our hair and it also gives the consumer a good aesthetic appearance, which enhances his/her confidence in its hair-washing performance.

The choice of surfactants affects the thickness and viscosity of the shampoo. Thicker shampoos usually contain surfactants of higher molecular weight. Cetyl alcohol and Cetearyl alcohol are commonly added as thickeners. Some surfactants such as Cocamide DEA(CDEA), Cocamide MEA(CMEA), and Cocomidopropyl Betaine(CAPB) can also help to build viscosity through surfactant synergy effects.

Compatibility

Commonly, more than one surfactants are present in a shampoo formulation for surfactant synergy to achieve the best overall performance at a lower cost. It's essential to ensure different surfactants are compatible with each other. As here above mentioned, Cationic surfactants are not compatible with Anionic surfactants.

Surfactants must also be compatible with other ingredients in the shampoo formulation, such as thickeners, conditioners, and preservatives.

Cost

As surfactants usually take up the largest portion of a shampoo formula. The cost of the surfactant can largely impact the overall cost of the shampoo, so it's important to choose a surfactant that provides good value for money.

Environmental impact

Some surfactants can have negative environmental impacts, such as being toxic to aquatic life, being hard to degrade in nature, or using unsustainable sources. Therefore, it's important to choose a surfactant that is environmentally friendly.

Regulatory compliance

The use of certain surfactants may be restricted or prohibited by regulations, so it's essential to choose a surfactant that is compliant with relevant regulations. A good place for checking the potential use restrictions of a surfactant(or any other ingredient) in personal care products is the Environmental Working Group(EWG).

Performance under different conditions

Different surfactants may perform differently under various conditions, such as pH range, hard/soft water, or in different temperatures, so it's important to consider the intended use and the specific properties of the surfactant for optimal performance.

Popular Surfactants Used in Shampoo Manufacturing

Some of the most commonly used surfactants in shampoo manufacturing are:

1. Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) ' This is a highly effective anionic surfactant that produces a rich, dense foam. Due to its potential irritation, it's being less and less used in shampoos.
2. Sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLES) ' This is currently the most widely used surfactant in shampoos. It's a milder derivative of SLS, but still produces a good lather. SLES is highly cost-effective and highly accessible.
3. Ammonium Lauryl Sulfate (ALS or AESA) ' It has very similar foaming, emulsifying, and cleaning properties to SLES, but with better solubility in water. Better solubility makes it easier to rise off and leaves less residue in washing.
4. Sodium Lauroyl Sarcosinate ' This is a trending Amino acid-based anionic surfactant with good foaming and cleansing ability and outstanding mildness. It's currently the most accessible amino acid surfactant in most places.
5. Cocamidopropyl Betaine ' This is an amphoteric surfactant that is mostly used as a secondary surfactant in shampoo. It is derived from coconut oil, readily biodegradable, and gentle on the skin. It also has outstanding foaming ability and can achieve a good synergy effect with SLES to thicken the shampoo.
6. Decyl Glucoside ' This is a non-ionic surfactant that is derived from corn and coconut. It is super gentle on the skin and is often used in natural and organic shampoos.
7. Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate ' This is a gentle, sulfate-free surfactant that is derived from coconut oil. It produces a creamy lather and is often used in baby shampoos and other gentle formulas.
8. Sodium Lauroyl Methyl Isethionate ' This is a gentle, sulfate-free surfactant that is derived from coconut oil. It is often used in clarifying shampoos and other products that need to remove build-up from the hair.

It's important to note that some of these surfactants may be harsher than others, and different individuals may have different sensitivities to them. Some people may prefer to use sulfate-free shampoos, which use gentler surfactants or none at all.

Conclusion

Choosing the right surfactants is essential for producing high-quality shampoo. Consider factors such as performance, mildness, cost, compatibility, hair type, formulation, environmental impact, and regulatory requirements when choosing surfactants for your shampoo. By carefully selecting the right surfactants, you can create a shampoo that effectively cleanses and nourishes the hair while being gentle on the scalp and the environment.

In today's post we will be tackling the topic of natural surfactants. This is a big topic! We will explain the basic chemistry of surfactants, we will talk more about the group that is used in cleansing formulas and we will compare and contrast five key natural surfactants that we think every organic formulator should be experimenting with.

Many beginner formulators start their journey creating anhydrous products such as balms and oils but soon progress to using a whole range of different ingredients and processes. At Formula Botanica, we have a bustling student community of formulators and many of them are looking to explore different kinds of active and functional ingredients to enable them to expand the range of products they can confidently formulate.

Additional reading:
Butyrate Health Benefits - Your Gut Bacteria's Super Weapon
How Does Diisobutylene Improve Product Performance in Your Applications?

For more information, please visit Non Ionic Surfactant Solution.

Read more: How to Make a Natural Shampoo with Rosemary and Mint

What are Natural Surfactants?

Firstly, let us talk about natural surfactants and how they work in your formulations. Surfactants covers a large group of ingredients that are responsible for several functions, including creating a product that foams. They are cleansing agents and are routinely found in shower gels, shampoos and facial cleansers.

Surfactants, or Surface Active Agents, group actually include various types of ingredients you may not have known about or used before. In fact, emulsifiers, solubilisers, dispersers, wetting agents and detergents also all belong to this ingredient group.

In this post, we will only be looking at natural surfactants that are used in cleansing products, where their role is to cleanse and foam. Keep in mind though that your formulation does not necessarily need to foam in order for it to clean. Natural surfactants are derived from natural sources and then undergo a degree of chemical processing in order for them to be suitable for use in cosmetics.

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The Structure of Surfactants

Surfactants have a water-loving (hydrophilic) head and a water-hating (hydrophobic) tail. As you can see from the chart below, the kind of charge contained within the water loving head, will determine the kind of surfactant:

 

Formulating with Non-Ionic Natural Surfactants

Natural and organic skincare formulators mostly work with non-ionic surfactants when they formulate surfactant-based skincare or haircare products. Firstly, they choose non-ionic surfactants owing to their compatibility with other surfactant types. Non-ionic surfactants work well with all the other groups we mentioned in the graphic above. Secondly, non-ionic surfactants are easy to formulate with.

Experimenting with non-ionic surfactants is a good place to start if you haven't worked with surfactants before. When used in a cleansing product, these non-ionic natural surfactants are gentle and provide relatively good foaming ability. We will look at some examples of natural surfactants in the next part of the blog post, so you can see what individual characteristic they display. These non-ionic surfactants are not all the same and while in theory they are interchangeable, as a formulator you will need to be prepared for some differences in their behaviour in a formulation.

We selected five plant-derived non-ionic surfactants for comparison: Coco glucoside, Decyl glucoside, Lauryl glucoside, Sucrose cocoate, Caprylyl/Capryl glucoside.

 

Natural Surfactant Comparison Table

Surfactant Trade name Certification* Properties pH Active matter Coco glucoside Sucranov' 818 UP -BergaSoft CG 50 / MB EcoSense' 919 Ecocert ' very mild ' has good foam stabilising quality ' has good hydrating properties ' biodegradable   '11.5 ' 12.5 ' 50 % Decyl glucoside BergaSoft DG 50 / MB -ORAMIX' NS10 / Plantacare® UP -EcoSense' Ecocert COSMOS Natrue ' biodegradable ' excellent and stable foam ' works very well with Cocamidopropyl betaine '11.5 ' 12.5 ' 50 % Lauryl glucoside BergaSoft LG 50 / MB -EcoSense' / Plantacare® UP Ecocert COSMOS Natrue ' very mild ' moderate foaming ' excellent viscosity builder ' good in baby cleansing products ' biodegradable '11.5 ' 12.5 ' 50 % Sucrose cocoate TEGOSOFT® LSE 65 K Soft N/A ' mild ' increases foam density & viscosity ' adds creaminess ' has good re-fatting qualities ' moisturising and anti-static ' biodegradable '6.5-7.5 '65% Caprylyl/Capryl glucoside BergaSoft CCG 70 / MB -ORAMIX' CG110 Ecocert COSMOS Natrue ' creates fine and stable foam ' mild ' good solubiliser for essential oils ' biodegradable '11.5 ' 12.5 ' 50% (there are various versions)

*Certification ' Whether the natural surfactant is available as a certified ingredient will depend on your supplier, but these ingredients are generally accepted by these certification bodies. 

What is Active Surfactant Matter (ASM)?

The ASM is a percentage that represents the concentration of the surfactant. When you buy a surfactant, it won't be delivered to you as a 'pure' ingredient as such, but they are diluted in water. If the ASM is 60%, this means the ingredient you've just purchased contains 60% surfactant and 40% water.

Knowing the ASM of your natural surfactant is important when deciding how much of your ingredient should be used in a cosmetic formulation. For example, you would use less natural surfactant in a facial cleanser than in a body cleanser, so your formulation is not so 'harsh' on the skin.

How to Perform a Foam Test with your Natural Surfactants

We performed a very simple foam test to check how well these natural surfactants perform when it comes to foaming. You now know that a formulation doesn't have to foam in order to clean the skin or hair. However, people generally expect their cleansers and shampoos to foam when they use them, so many formulators seek to create a product that generates a rich, dense lather and improves the overall user experience. In this test, we created five solutions that each contained 10% surfactant and 90% distilled water. The solution was transferred into foamer bottles and we compared the foam they produced in the image below.

Foam test results

As you can see, all five natural surfactants produced some foam, some better than others. Some of our observations included:

• Decyl glucoside is the best in terms of foam out of all five natural surfactants, as it creates a rich and dense foam.
• Both Coco and Caprylyl/ Capryl glucosides perform fine in terms of the foam they create, but Sucrose cocoate and Lauryl glucoside are not right for these type of bottles/ products; the foam they produced collapsed really quickly.
• Both Sucrose cocoate and Lauryl glucoside needed to be heated up as they are pastes. Sucrose cocoate produced a milky looking solution in water; this means it may not be the best option for transparent formulations.
• Lauryl glucoside created a transparent solution, but it also thickened up a bit which therefore suggested it was not suitable for use in the foamer bottle we used. Lauryl glucoside could be a great addition to any formulation where a bit of thickening is required.

 

Which natural surfactant are you going to formulate with?

Non-ionic surfactants are an excellent way to start your formulation journey into foaming products. They are gentle and mild, can produce good foam and they are perfect for following the natural and organic route. Another benefit of non-ionic surfactants is that they are compatible with all other surfactants. They often best perform when blended together (within the same group) or with surfactants with different charge. In fact, we challenge you try and do some mixing and compare how well they cleanse, as well as foam.

Not all natural surfactants behave the same, even if they belong to the same group, just like not all carrier oils or emulsifiers are the same. It takes time to observe how they behave in a product, so get your lab notebook ready and write down your trials and thoughts.

Start simple, use one natural surfactant in water. Try it again and blend two or even three natural surfactants together and observe. Check the pH, check the viscosity, check how well they foam and determine how stable that foam is. This way, you will truly understand what can make or break your formulations. Which natural surfactant do you plan to trial first? Leave us a comment below!

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