JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS 289 SURFACE ACTIVITY AND DETER- GENCY by K. Durham. Macmillan & Co. Ltd., London. 1961. 250 pages, illustrated and indexed. Price $8.00. This book presents a brief account of the basic physical chemistry. of detergent systems and examines detergent action from a fundamental standpoint. It is an excellent summation of the state of our knowledge and is primarily written for people working on and familiar with theories of detergency. The book's major weakness is that it was written by five contributors, making for discontinuity of presentation and style and leading to needless repetition. Five of the nine chapters of this volume are contributed by Durham. His opening chapter, Properties of Detergent Solutions, is poorly or- ganized. The author covers micelle formation very briefly, discusses adsorption phenomena in more de- tail, and then quite abruptly de- scribes in detai! the properties of nonionic detergents. No such de- tailed treatment is g?en. to the equally important anxomc deter- gents. The author discusses the use of Gibbs' adsorption equations but admits it is much less difficult to use Gibbs' formulae than to understand them. Chapter 2, /tggregation in De- tergent Solutions, by Garrett is an excellent review of the theory of micelle formation. The chapter is very well written and well docu- mented, with references to the basic work in this field. Particularly interesting is the discussion of the controversy between the "spherical" versus the "lameliar" micelle schools of thought. Another chapter by Durham, I/Fetting, is a thorough job and, in contrast to Chapter 1, is very well organized. The different types of wetting are discussed, as are the equations associated with the wet- ting of smooth and rough gorous and nonporous surfaces. One of the very interesting topics covered is the influence of fabric structure on its surface wettability. The duck's feather is a classic natural example of a water repellent structure, and apparently, its water repellency is due to the spatial arrangement of its fibers rather than any water- proofing agent (preen gland oil) on the feather. In Chapter 4, Dirt Removal, by Jones, a good review of the theory of oily and particulate dirt is given. The author presents data which clearly show how the composition and particle size of the soil affect the efficacy of detergents. The effect of builders on dirt removal is well presented, and it is interesting to learn that only soils contaminated with metal-ions respond to the action of builders. A number of incon- sistencies have crept into the text: Data presented in Table 4 on page 89 indicate that carbon soil is easier to remove than vacuum cleaner dust, yet the data shown in Figs. 4.7 and 4.8 are completely reversed. Moreover, the values for the per cent detergency of given detergents vary by more than 50%, depending on whether one refers to the tables or the graphs. The effect of temperature on detergency is treated briefly, and very little information xs given relating the efficacy of detergents to temperature, chemical structure or molecular weight. In Chapter 5, Effects of Detergents on Redeposition, Durham covers the mechanism of detergency. The discussion of the effect of the ionic double layer as a barrier to coales- cence and the theories by which oily and particulate soils are re- moved is in large measure a repeti-

290 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS tion of what has appeared in Chapter 4. The chapter contributed by Stevenson, The .4ncillary Effects in Detergent .4ction, contains many beautiful plates showing soil re- moval from fibers. Aside from these, this chapter is primarily a repetition of earlier chapters. The role of foam in detergency is treated very briefly. The author states that low foaming nonionic deter- gents appear to be as efficient as their foaming counterparts but gives no substantiating data. Surpris- ingly, the subject of alcohols and of long chain alkanolamides, which are widely used as detergency im- provers, receives almost no mention. Lawrence prefaces his contribu- tion, Polar Interaction in Detergency, with the following statement: "When I was asked to give a lecture on this series, I said that I knew nothing about the subject of the title nor, so far as I was aware, did anyone else." This reviewer is inclined to agree with Dr. Lawrence, and for all practical purposes this chapter could have been omitted from the text. The author talks (literally--in the first person) about the solubility of organic substances in aqueous soap solutions in a dis- jointed and rambling fashion. Many graphs on binary and ternary systems are presented which are probably very clear to experts in this field, but very little effort is made to make them understandable to those who would like to become experts. The reader is certainly entitled to a more lucid explanation than statements such as: "As usual in the smectic mesophase, the texture is not one of simple layers, but that of focal conics of Dupin's cyclides," appearing on page 169. The fact that detergents remove polar soil by penetration is covered in the last four pages of a 34-page chapter. The last two chapters, Kinetics of /ldsorption and Its Relation to De- tergency and Evaluation of Detergent Evyffciency, both by Durham, are brief but adequate. The latter rounds out the picture by discussing conventional and radioactive meth- ods of evaluating dishwashing, metal cleaning and fabric detergency. This reviewer believes that people working with surface active ma- terials in the fields of detergency and more specifically laundry and dish- washing detergents will find this book a good review and summation of the pertinent knowledge in the field today. However, this book is probably of very limited value to the cosmetic chemist whose major interests lie in the use of surfactants as emulsifiers, solubilizers and as detergents for skin and hair.- Charles Fox, Warner-Lambert Pharm. Co.