Renewable Surfactants for Biochemical Applications and Nanotechnology

Abstract

Surfactants find applications in almost every chemical industry, such as household and industrial cleaning, paper, inks, agrochemicals, and personal care or pharmaceuticals. However, their production and use can have a negative impact on the environment and health. Increasing environmental concerns and the strong interest in renewable resources have led to the development of innovative and environmentally friendly surfactants produced by clean and/or sustainable technologies. The aim of this review is to explore the different types of surfactants and their architectures. Then, it will describe the two categories of renewable surfactants: biosurfactants obtained by fermentation, and bio‐based surfactants containing either a bio‐sourced polar head group or a bio‐sourced hydrophobic tail. Finally, this review will focus on highly specialized applications of surfactants (protein crystallization, transfection, and nanotechnology), which are closely related to the ability of surfactants to organize themselves in supramolecular architectures.

Polyglycerol Ester-Based Low Energy Nanoemulsions with Red Raspberry Seed Oil and Fruit Extracts: Formulation Development toward Effective In Vitro/In Vivo Bioperformance

“…Despite the growing popularity of natural ingredients in cosmetic/pharmaceutical industry, the bio-origin must not be interpreted as an automatic provision of a safe or effective ingredient [ 17 ]. The polyglycerol-ester based surfactants employed in our study are naturally-derived and considered biocompatible, but due to their relatively high amount in the formulation and the addition of cosurfactants, it was necessary to assess their safety profile [ 40 ].…”

“…Thus, nanoemulsions of the oil-in-water (O/W) type are considered more favorable for skin application due to higher water content, lower skin irritation potential and commercial reasons [ 12 , 13 , 16 ]. Other desirable nanoemulsion features well-suited for topical formulations include pleasant visual appearance, high fluidity and good spreadability on skin surface, while the large surface area of small nanodroplets on the skin leads to improved or controlled penetration of active molecules [ 9 , 17 ].…”

“…Therefore, most of these novel surfactants have not yet been characterized or compared with the traditionally used polyethoxylated surfactants (such as Polysorbates). It should be noted that the bio-origin does not automatically lead to a safe and effective ingredient, thus all natural raw materials and the corresponding formulations have to be thoroughly assessed [ 17 ].…”

Cationic Surfactants: Self-Assembly, Structure-Activity Correlation and Their Biological Applications

“…One of the promising approaches in the design of building blocks for biomedical applications, which include formulations for drug delivery, is the creation of new multifunctional environmentally friendly, cleavable, green, and less toxic cationic surfactant systems answering the biotechnological criteria and improving biocompatibility, solubility, bioavailability, and biodegradability of therapeutics [35,36,37]. The promising strategy in this way is the design of cationic systems containing several covalently bound hydrophobic, hydrophilic groups, and various spacers to decrease surfactant concentration thresholds.…”

Impact of various surfactant classes on the microorganism community used for WWTP biodegradation treatment

“…For the monitored WWTP effluents total LAS concentrations up on to 47.7 μg/L [10]. The worldwide uses of surfactants in chemical industries such as household products, industrial cleaning, ink, pharmaceuticals, personal care, can affect the environment and human health [11]. In 2014 recorded 15.93 million tons of surfactants used and it is expected that in 2022 to be with over 1/3 more (24.19 million tons of surfactants) [12].…”