Alkylpolyglycoside: Carbohydrate Based Surfactant

Carbohydrates are growing important renewable raw material for surfactant industry. The development of surfactants based on carbohydrate and vegetable oils is the result of the product concept based on the exclusive use of natural resources. Sugar based surfactants are gaining increased attention due to advantage with regard to performance, health of consumer and environmental compatibility compared to some standard product. Alkylpolyglycoside (APG) is nonionic surfactant prepared from renewable raw materials namely glucose and fatty alcohol. Such products are expected to exhibit surface‐active properties due to the presence of the hydrophilic sugar moiety and the hydrophobic fatty alcohol residues. This article deals with the synthesis of alkylpolyglycoside and the study their surface active properties. APG was prepared by using fatty alcohol varying in chain length from C8‐C18. Effect of alkyl chain length of APG on the basic characteristics such as surface tension, interfacial tension, lime soap dispersing power, detergency, foaming, and wetting were studied. Alkylpolyglycoside prepared from octanol, decanol, and dodecanol are water soluble and shows good surface active properties where as those prepared from long chain fatty alcohols were water insoluble and, therefore, not evaluated for their surface active properties. Incorporation of APG in toilet soap was studied.