Surfactant–chitosan Interactions and Application to Emulsion Stabilization

Complexes obtained from the electrostatic interactions between chitosan, a cationic polysaccharide, and sodium decylsulfonate, an anionic surfactant, were characterized by their conductimetric and surface-active properties. Such surfactant/polyelectrolyte complexes (SPECs) present very interesting surface-active properties, even at very low surfactant concentrations (much lower than the critical micellar concentration, CMC, of pure surfactant), influencing either surface tension or viscoelastic properties of the adsorbed layers. This allows their use as emulsion stabilizers, while the very low surfactant concentration makes them potential candidates for cosmetic applications.