Potentiometric Determination of Surfactants in Detergents

Abstract

Surfactants are a great group of organic compounds and they are present in all types of detergents. Classical, two-phase titration in different modifications was used for a long time as the most important standard method for determination of anionic active substance in detergents until surfactant selective electrode was not showed oneself. Instrumental methods with high degree of automatization are modem and applicable today in practice because of fastness and reproducibility. Development and commercialization of surfactant electrodes and application of automatic titrators on the market enabled wide application of potentiometric titration. Methods are successfully applied in analytical procedures for determination of ionic and non-ionic surfactants in detergents and some of them are accepted as standard. In relation to classical methods they are more acceptable from analytical, economical and ecological point of view.