Difference between Dispersants And Surfactants

Dispersant is a kind of interfacial active agent which has two opposite properties of oleophilic and hydrophilic in the molecule. It can uniformly disperse the solid and liquid particles of inorganic and organic pigments that are difficult to dissolve in liquid, and also prevent the sedimentation and condensation of particles to form amphiphilic reagents required for stable suspension.

A surfactant is a substance that can significantly reduce the surface tension of a target solution. It has a fixed hydrophilic oil-philic group, which can be oriented on the surface of the solution. The molecular structure of surfactants is amphoteric: one end is a hydrophilic group, the other end is a hydrophobic group; Hydrophilic groups are often polar groups, such as carboxylic acid, sulfonic acid, sulfuric acid, amino or amine groups and their salts, hydroxyl, amide, ether bonds can also be used as polar hydrophilic groups; The hydrophobic groups are usually non-polar hydrocarbon chains, such as hydrocarbon chains with more than 8 carbon atoms. Surfactants are divided into ionic surfactants (including cationic surfactants and anionic surfactants), non-ionic surfactants, amphoteric surfactants, compound surfactants, other surfactants, etc