Screening of Basic Properties of Amphiphilic Molecular Structures for Colloidal System Formation and Stability: The Case of Carbohydrate-Based Surfactants

Colloidal systems are bubbles, droplets, or/and particles dispersed in a continuous media, which are encountered in nature, biological system, and manufactured products. As site of interfaces between at least two bulk phases, their formation and stability need the presence of amphiphilic molecules. Carbohydrate-based surfactants (CBS) take part of these groups of compound having numerous attractive features: an abundance of precursor raw material sources, an excellent environmental compatibility, and a possible quasi-unlimited design of their molecular structure and geometry by different preparation routes. Numerous properties and activities including the aptitude to form and stabilize colloidal systems are therefore expected from a wide range of CBS compounds. Screening of their interfacial behaviors, which govern their functionalities in colloidal system properties, are then relevant in fundamental and practical point of view. In this chapter, interfacial properties of uronic acid-based surfactants are presented as examples of screening approaches. Experimental measurements of both dynamic and equilibrium properties at air-liquid and liquid-liquid interfaces, as well as a computational approach are reported.