Physicochemical Properties Characterization

Detergents are widespread tools in many biochemical fields. The physicochemical properties of detergents have a great influence on its application. Therefore, understanding of the physicochemical properties of detergents will provide powerful guidance for people to choose the suitable detergents in various studies. Some physicochemical properties like critical micelle concentration (CMC) and aggregation number of detergents depend critically on external conditions such as pH, ionic strength, buffer composition or temperature. However, the effect of these conditions on the physicochemical properties cannot be predicted in advance, but must be measured by rigorous experiments.

Alfa Chemistry is an expert in detergents, who knows all kinds of physical and chemical properties of detergents and related characterization methods. By partnering with Alfa Chemistry, our world-class laboratories and scientists can support your unique detergents chemical testing and requirements, and help you use detergents properly.

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There are several important physicochemical properties of detergents, including CMC, the aggregation number, the micelle size, the Krafft point, cloud point and hydrophilic-lipophilic balance (HLB) value. Alfa Chemistry can adopt a variety of methods to determine the above physicochemical properties. The details are described as below.

Test items	Methods
CMC	Conductive method, surface tension method, fluorometric method, dye solubilization, turbidity method, light scattering, titration method, etc.
Aggregation number	NMR spectroscopy, static light scattering, small-angle neutron scattering, small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), fluorescent dye binding, steady-state fluorescence quenching, electron paramagnetic resonance, etc.
Micelle size	Dynamic light scattering (DLS), SAXS, etc.
Krafft point	Conductivity measurements, spectrophotometry, etc.
Cloud point	Standard test method (ASTM D2024-65(2003)), etc.
HLB value	Griffin's method, Davies' method, Estimation method, etc.

The detergents we can test include:

Anionic detergents: Stearic acid, sodium deoxycholate, sodium cholate, etc.
Cationic detergents: Quaternary ammonium compounds, etc.
Zwitterionic detergents: Betain-like compounds, sulfobetaines, phosphocholines, phosphine oxides, aminoxides, phosphatidyl cholines, po-lipids, dp-lipids, bile acid derivatives, cholesterol derivatives, bicelles, etc.
Non-ionic detergents: Alkyl glucosides, alkanoyl glucamides/ glycosides, alkyl galactosides, alkyl thioglucosides, alkyl maltosides, alkyl thiomaltosides, alkyl sulfoxides, PEG ethers, EOPO copolymers, alcohol or phenolic initiated alkoxylates, etc.

In addition, some novel and special detergents such as tripod detergents and peptide-based detergents are also in our test range.