Search


	Podcast:		Science Nation
	Episode:		Surfactants: Building greener chemicals
	Category:		Science & Medicine
	Duration:		00:03:05
	Publish Date:		2015-07-30 00:00:00
	Description:		From cleaning supplies to pharmaceuticals, surfactants are the compounds that make your soap bubbly, your paint spread smoothly and your medication dissolve more easily. Surfactants can be found everywhere because of their unique dispersion ability that helps lower the repulsive forces between liquids and solids or two non-mixing liquids (think oil and water). Most surfactants are currently made from non-renewable petroleum sources and many of these surfactants don't breakdown easily after they are discarded. Some can persist in the environment for decades. Their widespread use and environmental persistence has raised concerns about toxicity. At the University of Arizona, Jeanne Pemberton and her cross-disciplinary team work to create new "green" surfactants based on sugars that are generally known as glycolipids. With support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Pemberton and her team are exploring the recent discovery of a versatile synthesis that allows production of many different types of glycolipids in large quantities. Some of these glycolipids are modeled after naturally occurring biosurfactants and some can be produced relatively inexpensively using renewable natural resources.
	Total Play:		0