The synthesis and basic properties of 2-ethylhexanol based innovative nonionic surfactants are described in this paper. 2-Ethylhexanol as an available and relatively inexpensive raw material was used as the hydrophobe source modified by propoxylation and followed by polyethoxylation. As the result, six series of 2-ethylhexyl alcohol polyalkoxylates (EHPmEn) were obtained with three steps of propoxylation, each followed by polyethoxylation and two series only with polyethoxylation (EHEn). Two different catalysts were used, a dimetalcyanide and KOH. Values of average conversion rates and chemical content of the obtained products (GC, TG and GPC techniques) were compared. The influence of the applied catalyst and polyaddition degree on the homologue distribution, reactant conversion and amount of byproducts is discussed. The basic physicochemical parameters including refractive index, solubility in polar media, foaming properties and wettability were investigated and compared. Furthermore, surface activity parameters, i.e. surface tension (γCMC) and critical micelle concentrations were determined. Results are compared to C12–14 alcohol ethoxylates (LaEn). Accordingly, it was found that the studied 2-ethylhexyl alcohol based compounds are effective, low foaming nonionic surfactants.

The surface properties of quasi-ternary systems comprising two surfactants in water were studied in the light of previously published hypotheses of specific two-dimensional arrangements of associated surfactant molecules and compatibility of their hydrophobic chains. In contrast to the studies of model ternary systems of pure components reported previously in the literature, the title quasi-ternary systems were prepared as water solutions of two polydisperse mixtures of surfactants: an anionic one (quasi-component 1) and nonionic one (quasi-component 2). The complex quasi-components used were polydisperse in terms of both ethylene oxide substituent numbers and the carbon chain length, obtained as received under industrial conditions from commercial raw materials. The novel surfactants which are the subject of the present study were synthesized by elongation of the hydrophobic chain of 2-ethylhexan-1-ol molecules by catalytic polyaddition of methyloxirane (propylene oxide), followed by introduction into the resulting transformed structure of a hydrophilic group (in the form of a polyether chain and/or a sulfosuccinate group). All synthesized surfactants were therefore polydispersed mixtures of methyloxirane and oxirane (ethylene oxide) homologues. It was shown that, in the case of the quasi-ternary aqueous systems studied, the extrema of the investigated functions describing the surface properties occur in the neighborhood of some specific stoichiometric ratios of the surfactant concentrations, namely 1:3/3:1. On the other hand, synergistic effects associated with the compatibility of the hydrophobic chains studied were not confirmed.

Two series of block copolymers of methyloxirane and oxirane, derivatives of 2-ethylhexanol, were obtained with the use of KOH as a conventional homogeneous alkaline catalyst and a coordinative dimetalcyanide catalyst (DMC), respectively. The DMC type catalyst showed much higher kinetic activities and its reaction exhibited a narrower distribution of homologues, as compared with those obtained in the presence of KOH. The thermogravimetric technique was proposed for the characterization of the fractional content of products. The pluming phenomenon and VOCs content were discussed as a practical aspect of the differences in fractional compositions of the products examined.