Soap is one of the earliest surfactants used, which began to be used in the 7th to 6th centuries BC. Soap will precipitate when encountering hard water and is unstable in acidic solutions. Red oil (also known as Türkiye red oil) is the sulfated product of castor oil (anionic surfactant). It was first synthesized by German Baden Aniline Soda Ash Company in 1875 and is the first synthetic surfactant used in textile and leather industries. During World War I, Germany successfully researched the production of alkyl naphthalene sulfonate from naphthalene, propanol, or butanol using fuming sulfuric acid, which could be used as a substitute for soap, thus saving animal and vegetable fats used in soap making. Although alkyl naphthalene sulfonate has poor cleaning ability, it has good wetting and permeability, and is not affected by hard water or acidic solutions, so it is still widely used today. In 1936, with the development of petrochemicals, the United States was the first to successfully study the production of alkylbenzene sulfonate from benzene and kerosene. Later, due to the addition of various additives and improved production technology, synthetic detergents mainly composed of alkylbenzene sulfonate were superior in terms of application performance and cost compared to soap, and began to be widely used in production and daily life. Since then, the proportion of synthetic detergents in the total amount of washing products has been increasing year by year. In 1982, the world's production of synthetic detergents had reached 28Mt, surpassing soap and continuing to grow. The research and production of surfactants, represented by synthetic detergents, have developed rapidly and have now become an important chemical production sector. There are already thousands of varieties of surfactants.
The surfactant and synthetic detergent industry in China began in the 1950s, and although it started relatively late, it developed rapidly. In 1995, the total amount of laundry products reached 3.1 million tons, ranking second in the world after the United States. The production of synthetic detergents increased from 400000 tons in 1980 to 2.3 million tons in 1995, a net increase of 4.7 times, and grew at an average annual growth rate of over 10%.
According to authoritative departments in China, the total amount of laundry products will reach 3.6 million tons in 2000, of which synthetic detergents will reach 655000 tons. Among them, the types of surfactants with a production capacity of over 10000 tons include sodium linear alkylbenzene sulfonate (LAS), sodium fatty alcohol polyoxyethylene ether sulfate (AES), ammonium fatty alcohol polyoxyethylene ether sulfate (AESA), sodium lauryl alcohol sulfate (K12 or SDS), nonylphenol polyoxyethylene ether (TX-10), Pingpingjia O, diethanolamide (6501), glycerol stearate, lignosulfonate, heavy alkylbenzene sulfonate, alkyl sulfonate (petroleum sulfonate), diffuser NNO, diffuser MF, alkyl polyether (PO-EO copolymer), fatty alcohol polyoxyethylene ether (AEO-3), etc.