The spreading behaviour and spreading mechanism of new glucosamide-based trisiloxane on polystyrene surfaces

In order to evaluate the spreading behaviour of new glucosamide-based trisiloxane surfactants on hydrophobic surfaces, the time- and concentration-dependent spreading performance was investigated. Dynamic light scattering (DLS) was applied to investigate the role of surfactant aggregates on the spreading process. The results suggest that glucosamide-based trisiloxane surfactants show superspreading behaviour on hydrophobic surfaces; however, the spreading mechanism differs from that of ethylene oxide trisiloxane. The existence of large aggregates at low concentrations and relatively large spreading areas during the initial stages of wetting is helpful for generating the Marangoni effect, but the gemini-structure does not show good spreading characteristics. Synergistic effects between these five surfactants were also investigated, and considerable synergism was observed. Furthermore, both the spreading behaviour of mixed and single component systems suggests that the hydrophilic-lipophilic balance of surfactants play an important role in superspreading and an optimal HLB value is important for achieving good spreading behaviour.