Surfactants: an emerging face of pollution

Surfactant pollution, an emerging threat to ecosystem: Approaches for effective bacterial degradation

“…During the wastewater treatment of effluents, surfactants are incompletely degraded and are discharged as such into the water bodies. Surfactant concentrations above 0.1 mg L −1 causes the development of huge and persistent foam in the rivers and streams (Bhatt et al, 2020). Due to the production of such a frothy layer on the surface of the water, penetration of oxygen through these layers is reduced, thereby leading to decreased oxygen adsorption by aquatic organisms (Rajan, 2015) which further leads to the disruption of the hydrological cycle by retarding the process of evaporation (Olkowska et al, 2014).…”

“…A study reported the presence of 111 surfactants at a wastewater treatment plant which was found to further impair the performance of the plant (Sá et al, 2022). When the surfactant concentration exceeds its critical micelle concentration (CMC), the surface tension reduces rapidly and even the materials with no original adsorption energy start dissolving in the water, thus leading to an increase in the concentration of both soluble and insoluble pollutants in water (Bhatt et al, 2020). Such behaviour adversely changes the properties of water.…”

Rhamnolipids: A biosurfactant for the development of lipid‐based nanosystems for food applications

“…The word surfactant derives from surface active agent, a molecule that has the capacity to decrease the surface tension. The surfactants are also called amphiphile (combination of two Greek words “amphi” which means double/from both sides and “philos” that means affinity) molecules due to their affinity with aqueous and oily phases (Bhatt et al., 2020). These compounds have this particularity because they contain a hydrophilic (polar) and a hydrophobic (nonpolar) domain.…”

“…In general, the surfactants are low molecular weight molecules and are divided into different classes taking into account the charge of the head group: cationic (positive charge), nonionic (non‐charged), anionic (negative charge), and zwitterionic/amphoteric (negative and positive charge being the charge equal to zero) (Bhatt et al., 2020; Rodrigues, 2015). The concentration of surfactant used can determine the structures and the interactions between the polar head groups and the nonpolar tail groups.…”

“…Relatively to surfactant synthesis, a large part of commercial surfactants are synthetic and derived from petrochemical sources. Most of the surfactants are not biodegradable which means that a big part of them are carried out into the environment through effluents being their accumulation hazardous to the environment and consequently to human health (Bhatt et al., 2020; Gudiña et al., 2015; Soberón‐Chávez & Maier, 2011). Therefore, considering the importance of surfactants and the dimension of their market, it is urgent to find more natural alternatives, with synthesis that are more sustainable and good for the environment (Bhatt et al., 2020; McClements & Gumus, 2016).…”