Surface tension of kraft lignin (KL) and KL/poly(N,Ndimethylaminoethyl methacrylate) mixtures, with different composition at the air-water interface depending on pH and temperature, was measured. It was found that the surface activity of both KL and the reaction mixtures grows with decreasing pH and increasing temperature. At the same time, the surface activity of the KL/poly(N,Ndimethylaminoethyl methacrylate) reaction mixture, irrespective of its composition under the same environment conditions, considerably exceeds the surface activity of KL, indicating the synergetic effect governed by the peculiarities of the polymeric structure of the formed soluble particles of the polyelectrolyte complex.

The effect of softwood sulphate lignin modified by its oxidation in alkaline medium on its behaviour at the air-water and oil-water interface, where rapeseed oil and technical fish fat oil served as the oil phase, was investigated. It has been found that, irrespective of the рН values of the water solution, the ability of the modified lignin to be adsorbed at the interfaces exceeds that of unmodified lignin, which is obviously caused by the pronounced differentiation of the hydrophilic and hydrophobic parts of the molecular structure in the oxidised lignin and the decrease in the content of the high-molecular fraction (Mw is greater than 1000) in it. At low concentrations (≤ 0.01 g/dl), the stabilising action of the modified lignin in the rapeseed oil-water emulsion is the same as that of sodium dodecyl sulphate. The enhanced surface activity of the oxidised sulphate lignin enables it not only to substitute the 30% of the mass of the commercial surfactant in the detergent composition for washing stainless steel plates, used during fish smoking, but also to upgrade its properties.

Model wastewater, imitating the hydrothermal treatment of birch wood in the basins of veneer production, was obtained under laboratory conditions. Birch lignin (BLIG) was isolated from the model wastewater by precipitation with concentarted sulphuric acid. The increase in reduced viscosity with decreasing concentration of BLIG in the water solutions indicated its polyelectrolyte behaviour. The presence of both ionized functional groups and hydrophobic aromatic fragments in the BLIG molecules favoured its surface active properties. With decreasing pH and increasing concentration, the surface activity of BLIG at the air-water and oil-water interfaces increased, indicating the enhanced hydrophobicity of lignin fragments due to the protonization of its acidic groups. The pronounced surface activity of BLIG was in accordance with the very low value of its critical micelle concentration. The dependence of the emulsion stability on the ionic strength may testify the predominant structural mechanical mechanism of the stabilization of the rapeseed oil-in-water emulsion, containing BLIG as a stabilizer. The revealed surface properties of the isolated lignin allow predicting its application for lowering surface tension in different disperse systems to prevent the coalescence and agglomeration phenomena.