Table 4.

Colloidal properties of common synthetic surfactants and biosurfactants.

Surfactant	Type	Chemical Grouping	CMC	Surface Tension (mN/m)	Reference
Biosurfactant
Rhamnolipid	Anionic/nonionic	Glycolipid	5 mg/L	25–40	[156]
Mannosylerthriol lipid	Anionic	Glycolipid	1.50–100 mg/L	30–33	[157]
Trehalose lipid	N/A	Glycolipid	1.04–37 mg/L	34	[158]
Sophorolipid	Anionic/nonionic	Glycolipid	9.5 mg/L	30–43	[159]
Cellobioselipid	N/A	Glycolipid	20 µM (pH 4.0), 33 µM (pH 4.0)	37 in 0.1 M NaHCO3 23 °C	[159]
Surfactin	Zwitterionic	Lipopeptides and oligopeptides	20–130 mg/L	27.9–36	[160]
Viscosin	N/A	Lipopeptides and oligopeptides	54 mg/L	28	[151]
Amphisin	N/A	Lipopeptides and oligopeptides	54 mg/L	32	[161]
Syringomycin	N/A	Lipopeptides and oligopeptides	1.25 mg/mL	33	[162]
Synthetic
Alkyl polyglucosides	Nonionic	Glycolipid	67–87 mg/L	28–29	[163] p
Dodecyl maltoside	Nonionic	Glycolipid	0.2 mM (102 mg/L)	35.5
SDS	Anionic	Organic sodium salt	7–8 mM (2–3 g/L)	38
Hexa-ethyleneglycol mono n-dodecyl ether (C12E6)	Nonionic	Alcohol ethoxylate	0.087 mM (39 mg/L)	33
Tetraethylene glycol monodecyl ether (C10E4)	Nonionic	Glycol ether	0.68 mM (227 mg/L)	30
Triton X-100	Nonionic	Poly (ethylene glycol) derivative	140 mg/L	30–31
Tween/polysorbate 80	Nonionic	Polysorbates	17 mg/L	42
Tween/polysorbate 20	Nonionic	Polysorbates	70 mg/L	30

^p Note. Partially adapted from “Biosurfactants and surfactants interacting with membranes and proteins: Same but different?” by Daniel E. Otzen, 2017, Biochim Biophys Acta Biomembr, 1859(4):639–649.