Surfactants

Surface-active compounds or surfactants (short for SURFace ACTive AgeNTS) are structurally capable of adsorbing to interfaces, thereby reducing interfacial tensions.

The term amphiphilic compounds applies to molecules with two parts of different polarities. A surfactant is always amphiphilic; however, an amphiphilic compound is not necessarily surfactant.

The term detergent is sometimes misused to designate surface-active compounds: by definition, a detergent has cleaning power (removal of impurities); it is therefore a surface-active compound or, more often, a mixture of surface-active compounds (detergent formulation). On the other hand, a surfactant compound may not have detergent properties.