The role of chelating agent in the self-assembly of amphoteric surfactants.

Hypothesis: Limited research has been conducted on the influence of chelating agents on the self-assembly process in surfactant solutions. The traditional approach assumes the chelating agent only interferes as a salting-out ion, therefore promoting surfactant separation. However, the opposite behavior has been observed for iminodipropionate based surfactants, in which the presence of chelating agents of the aminopolycarboxylate type increases solubility of nonionic ethoxylated surfactants in mixed micellar systems.