Nonionic surfactants : A multivariate study

Abstract: In this thesis technical nonionic surfactants are studied using multivariate techniques. The surfactants studied were alkyl ethoxylates (AEOs) and alkyl polyglucosides (APGs).The aquatic toxicity of the surfactants towards two organisms, a shrimp and a rotifer, was examined. The specified effect was lethality, LC50, as indicated by immobilisation. In a comparative study, the LC50 values obtained were used to develop two different types of model. In the log P model the toxicity was correlated to log P alone, while in the multivariate model several physicochemical variables, including log P, were correlated to the toxicity. The multivariate model gave smaller prediction errors than the log P model.Further, the change in reactivity when a surfactant mixture was added to dissolving pulp under alkaline conditions was studied, using the amount of residual cellulose as a measure of the reactivity. Ten AEO/APG mixtures were tested, and the mixture with greatest potential was studied in more detail. An optimum in the amount of added surfactant was found that seems to coincide, according to surface tension measurements, with the CMC.