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2024 Technical Program
Surfactants and Detergents
Janet McMillan, PhD
Associate Research Scientist
Dow
Midland, MI, United States
Daniel S. Miller (he/him/his)
Research Scientist
Dow
Collegeville, Pennsylvania, United States
Ni Huo
Senior Research Specialist
Dow, United States
Christian Heil
Senior Research Specialist
Dow, United States
Lauren Wilson
R&D Technician
Dow, United States
Caroline` Nimako-Boateng
R&D Technologist
Dow, United States
Lu Xiaodong
Senior Research Specialist
Dow, United States
Ingrid Vervier
TS&D Scientist
Dow, United States
Ying O'Connor
Research Scientist
Dow, United States
As formulators of rinse-off personal care products seek to replace or reduce traditional sodium laureth sulfate (SLES) surfactants with more sustainable alternatives, there is a need to rethink traditional formulation paradigms. The structural complexity and diversity of bio-based/bio-surfactants derived from sustainable raw materials present many challenges in predicting their phase behavior, physical properties, and performance of formulations. This talk will summarize high-throughput studies of the impact of Alkyl Polyglucoside, Alkyl Polypentoside, Sophorolipids (SLs), and Amino-Acid surfactants on micelle structure, mildness and formulation viscosity in both sulfate-based and sulfate-free systems. The development of predictive models based on this high-throughput data will be discussed. Overall, this work provides both fundamental insight into the interactions of biosurfactants with traditional surfactants used in personal care products, and practical predictive tools to and accelerate the development of formulations with improved mildness and sustainability profiles.