ANDRIY POPADYUK¹, SATYABRATA SAMANTA², SAMIM ALAM²,
HARJYOTI KALITA², BRET J. CHISHOLM^{1, 2}, ANDRIY VORONOV¹*

*Corresponding author

1. Coatings and Polymeric Materials Department, North Dakota State University,
P.O. Box 6050, Dept. 2760, Fargo, ND 58108-6050, USA

2. Center for Nanoscale Science and Engineering, North Dakota State University,
Fargo, ND 58108, USA

Abstract

This review focuses on use of polymeric surfactants from renewable resources, including vegetable oils, in personal care applications, particularly hair shampoos. In more details the article discusses recently developed and extensively characterized soybean oil-based polymeric surfactants (SBPS). Applicability of the SBPS in shampoo formulations, either as a single surface-active ingredient, or in combination with commonly applied anionic surfactants (i.e. sodium lauryl sulfate, SLS) was shown. Moreover, it was observed that performance of model shampoo formulations is improved in the presence of SBPS as surface active ingredient (either as a single surfactant or in mixture with commodity SLS surfactant) in terms of cleaning, foaming and conditioning of shampoos, also in comparison with two commercially available products.

Surfactants in Hair Shampoo: Challenging Balance

A hair shampoo is a type of cleaning agent, an aqueous solution of surfactant with a number of additives, which is used to cleanse the hair and scalp while preserving healthy and superficial hair look (1). When this solution is put onto wet hair, the foam is formed that uptakes the oil and dirt. Following hair rinsing with a large volume of water removes the dirt and leaves hair and scalp clean. Surfactants are mainly responsible for cleaning and foaming of shampoos, but they can also provide other important properties, such as aesthetics, stability, color, etc. (2). Molecules of surfactant usually contain both hydrophobic (“water-hating”) and hydrophilic (“water-loving”) moieties in their chemical structure (it makes surfactant molecules amphiphilic) and form micelles (molecular aggregates) in water. They are e ... ...