Carbohydrate-Modified Silicone Surfactants

Silicone surfactants have been widely used in our daily life and many industrial fields on the basis of their unusual properties. Only in the past decades has the use of silicone as a hydrophobic building block for the preparation of surfactants become common. The recent trend to combine silicone, polyoxyalkylene and carbohydrate moieties in the same molecule has resulted in a plethora of new compounds with new properties. The generic structure and surface activity of silicone surfactants are reviewed in this article. Especially, the preparation, properties and application of carbohydrate-modified silicone surfactants such as glucosamide-containing and glycoside-containing silicone surfactants are described in detail. In addition, the future development of silicone surfactants is discussed.