Newly designed polysiloxane-graft-poly (oxyethylene) copolymeric surfactants: preparation, surface activity and emulsification properties

Two sets of comb-grafted polymeric surfactants based on poly-(methylhydrogen siloxane) (PHMS) and/or poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PHMS-PDMS) were prepared by sililation of the active Si-H group with an active omega-vinyl group of specially designed undecenoic-polyethyleneglycol esters (UPEG) to form "newly-designed" polysiloxane-grafted-polyethyleneglycol comb-copolymeric surfactants. The hydrophilic moieties are hooked to the hydrophobic backbone through a "spacer" (undecenoic acid). The variations in the surfactants' structures were in the length and density of the grafted hydrophilic moieties, the chain length (DP) and nature of the hydrophobic backbone. The first 12 different polymeric surfactants (set 1), termed PHMS-UPEG, were found to be ineffective emulsifiers with limited ability to stabilize oil-in-water emulsions. The second set of surfactants, named PHMS-PDMS-UPEG comb-grafted copolymers, significantly reduced the oil-water interfacial tension and effectively stabilized several types of oil-in-water emulsions. The best emulsifier of this set (PHMS-PDMS-52-UPEG-45), seems to be the one whose anchor backbone (PHMS-PDMS) dissolves (rather than spreads) in the oil phase, and whose stabilizing moieties are sufficiently long (45 EO units) and "hooked" to the silicone backbone at high density (52% substitution).