Application of Surfactants - Fatty Amine Ethoxylates

Surfactants are the surface active agents that are widely used in form of cleansing agents, emulsifiers and wetting agents for various applications in industries. They can be used in formation of other surfactant products or derivatives and are often employed in processes as solubilizing and coupling agents, fiber lubricants and dyeing assists in textile processes, leveling agents and in various other applications.

Talking about the surfactant products widely used in industries, ethoxylates are widely used in industries as surfactants. Ethoxylates derived from ethoxylation of substances like fatty alcohols, fatty acids or amines are employed in industries for applications like cleaning, emulsifying, wetting, scouring etc. Let us now have a look at the fatty amine ethoxylate surfactants used in industrial processes.

What are Fatty Amine Ethoxylates and Where are They Used?

Fatty amine ethoxylates are nonionic surfactants used as wetting and dispersing agents, stabilizers, sanitizers and defoaming agents in various industries like textile, paper, drilling, chemical, paint, metal etc. The fatty amine ethoxylates are used as emulsifiers and can also be employed in formulation of emulsifier blends. They play an important role as emulsifiers in agrochemical industries, cleaners in industrial processes especially in metal industry, oil field chemicals, fabric softeners, petroleum additives and for applications in textile and leather processing, paper de-inking, mining & drilling.

How are Fatty Amines Ethoxylates Formulated?

Production of fatty amines ethoxylate products takes place when the amines like amino acids, tallow amines, oleyl amine, coco amine, stearyl amines etc are made to react with ethylene oxide in presence of a catalyst in ethoxylation process. Fatty amines are nitrogen derivatives of fatty acids, olefins, or alcohols prepared from natural sources, fats and oils, or petrochemical raw materials. The commercially available fatty amines are prepared by either distillation of fatty acids or when fatty alcohols are reacted with ammonia or primary, secondary amines.

Types of Fatty Amine Ethoxylates

Some of the popular forms of ethoxylated amines widely used in industrial processes include the tallow amines, coco amines, stearyl amines and oleyl amines.

The popular product used for soaps, leather dressings, candles, food, and lubricant applications in industries, tallow amine ethoxylate is derived from ethoxylation of tallow amine which is prepared from tallow, a hard fat usually extracted from fatty deposits of animals. Tallow consists chiefly of glyceryl esters of oleic, palmitic, and stearic acids.

The oleyl amine ethoxylates are best used in textile applications. With high affinity for surfaces these products are good for coating applications and as such are used for coating cloth, yarn etc. They are good emulsifiers and are used in many cleaning and detergent formulations due to their antistatic behaviour and dispersing abilities. In the similar way stearyl amine ethoxylates and coco amine ethoxylates are the two other widely used industrial surfactant products employed in different forms for various applications in diverse industries.

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This article has been written by Govindbhai Mathurdas Patel.