Surfactants

What is a surfactant?
They can be divided into a number of groups.
Anionic surfactants have a hydrophobic tail and an anionic head, such as dodecylbenzenesulfonate.
Cationic surfactants have a hydrophobic tail and a cationic head, such as cetlypyridinium.
Nonionic surfactants have a hydrophobic tail and an uncharged but hydrophilic head, such as poly(propylene oxide)/poly(ethylen oxide) biblock polymers (Pluionic)
I found this on the net:

There are four main classes of detergents: anionic, cationic(both ionic), non-ionic and amphoteric.
1)Anionic Detergents
Anionic means a negatively charged molecule. The detergency of the anionic detergent is vested in the anion. The anion is neutralised with an alkaline or basic material, to produce full detergency. Anionic surfactants are a type of ionic surfactant.
2)Cationic Detergents
Cation means positively charged. The detergency is in the cation, which can be a substantially sized molecule. The cationic detergents invariably contain amino compounds. The most widely used would be the quaternary ammonium salts, such as cetyl trimethylammonium chloride(bromide), a well known germicide.
3)Nonionic Detergents
The vast majority of all nonionic detergents are condensation products or ethylene oxide with a hydrophobe. They would be the single biggest group of all detergents.
4)Amphoterics
These have the characteristics of both anionic detergents and cationic fabric softeners. They tend to work best at neutral pH, and are found in shampoo’s, skin cleaners and carpet shampoo. They are very stable in strong acidic conditions and have found favour for use with hydrofluoric acid.

SO THERE you have it
SIGMA have a lovely catalogue on surfactants.

The surfactants that have been proposed for adding to lead dioxide plating tanks have been both cationic and nonionic.

Cetyltrimethlyammonium bromide (also called Hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide) is a cationic surfactant that is claimed to reduce stress in lead dioxide in JES Sept. 1976 p1294 (available on this page).
If using this surfactant it is desirable to mix it with a small amount of water before adding to plating tank, as it is inclined to form clumps that are tedious to dissolve. Use about 3 grams per liter.
US PATENT No. 2,945,791 and JES Feb. 1958 (on this page) recommends a surfactant of the 'alkyl phenoxy polyoxyethelene ethanol class' . It has a trade name "Ipegal CO-880 (was made by Antara Chemical Division of General Dyestuff Corp.) and is a nonionic surfactant. Use one or two grams per liter.

A surfactant similar to the Ipegal is Synperonic NP-30 from ICI and also Tergitol NP-9.5 from Union Carbide.

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