Correlation of nonionic surfactant structure and solubility with textile wetting

The effect of nonionic surfactant structure with respect to textile wetting efficiency has been studied. A correlation has been shown to exist between wetting speed and molecular diffusion rate, critical micelle concentration, area per molecule (as deduced from surface tension versus concentration measurements), extent of adsorption and temperature. The slope of the log wetting time versus log concentration curve is dependent upon temperature, cloud point, critical micelle concentration and area per molecule. Log concentration for ten‐second wetting is shown to be inversely proportional to the diffusion constant which in turn is a function of the critical micelle concentration. Concentration coefficients of wetting indicate that the most efficient wetting is obtained at or very near to the critical micelle concentration.