Trns book, based on a course of lectures given by the authors at the Liverpool College of Technology during the winter 1957-58, covers briefly but concisely the elements of surface activity, wetting phenomena and colloidal electrolytes, while giving a more detailed treatment of practical detergency. To the chemical engineer, it will be of interest principally in so far as it deals with the displacement by aqueous detergents of oil or grease from solid surfaces.
Here, even if thermodynamically favourable, the displacement may be extremely slow, so that in practice hydrodynamic factors become very important. This book points out the problems, and shows how much research is still required to evaluate such hydrodynamic influences on the displacement of patches of oil or grease, of particulate matter, or of bubbles, from solid surfaces.
In a volume written by five authors, some overlap is inevitable: indeed the different emphasis placed by the various writers on the same topic (e.g. myelinic tubes) may point the wav to future research. Though the words "soil" and "dirt" seem to be almost interchang&ble in the text, but not in the subject index, and though publication of the book has been slower than is desirable in such an actively pursued field, it is a,most useful summary of both fundamentals and of recent studies.
All who work on detergency will find "Surface Activity and Detergency" very readable and timely; it contains many references, and is reasonably priced. J. T. DAVIES