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Abstract The groups of chemical compounds known as surface active agents are in the most common form constituted of a hydrocarbon portion and a polar or ionic portion as illustrated schematically in Fig. 1. The hydrocarbon portion , which can be linear or branched, interacts only very weakly with the water molecules in an aqueous environment. Moreover, the strong interactions between the water molecules arising from dispersion forces and hydrogen bonding act cooperatively to squeeze the hydro- carbon out of the water, hence the chain is usually called hydrophobic. The polar or ionic portion of the molecule, usually termed the head-group, however interacts strongly with the water via dipole-dipole or ion-dipole interactions and is solvated. |