Silicone Surfactants - Wetting

Ø     Wetting – Wetting is a very important, sometimes overlooked surface phenomenon which is critical to almost all personal care products. Wetting is a direct result of the reduction of surface tension at an interface, which allows for a liquid material to “spread” on a substrate.

ü     If you are applying a personal care product to hair, skin, nails or virtually any other site, the ability to spread on that surface is critical.

ü     If you are coating, grinding, dispersing or otherwise working with a  pigment, wetting of the liquid phase on the pigment is critical. This criticality is even more acute when one considers almost all pigments have a coating of some kind on them.

ü     Wetting is a phenomenon that occurs at low concentrations. At concentrations above the CMC (critical micelle concentration) the wetting properties do not improve as the concentration is increased. Consequently, the use of silicone wetting agents is at levels typically below 0.5% by weight.

ü     Wetting agent choice is dependant upon not only the substrate chosen to wet but also the nature of the liquid chosen consequently, there are wetting agents that oil wet, water wet and silicone wet.

Silicone Wetting Agents                                                

       - Trisiloxanes

- Dimethicone Copolyol Compounds (PEG/PPG dimethicone)