Insights on polymer surfactant complex structures during the binding of surfactants to polymers as measured by equilibrium and structural techniques.

This tutorial review provides new insights into the binding interactions between anionic surfactant molecules and various macromolecules in solution. The systems are of inherent scientific interest because synergistic mixing between these two components leads to complexes commonly found in applications such as detergency, cosmetic products, rheology control, paint and pharmaceutical formulations. We describe how the basic foundations, which are prerequisite to characterize a given polymer/surfactant system are evaluated together with information on the binding mechanism and structure derived from several methodologies.