Published Paper Details:

Surfactant-polymer interactions play a significant role in numerous industrial, pharmaceutical, and environmental applications due to their ability to modify solution properties such as viscosity, solubilization, surface tension, and stability. When surfactants and polymers coexist in an aqueous medium, their association leads to the formation of complexes driven by hydrophobic, electrostatic, and hydrogen-bonding interactions. These interactions strongly influence micellization behavior, critical micelle concentration (CMC), and aggregation number of surfactants, while also altering the conformational and rheological properties of polymers. Such systems are extensively employed in detergency, enhanced oil recovery, cosmetics, drug delivery, food processing, and wastewater treatment. Understanding these interactions is essential for tailoring formulations with desired physicochemical properties and functional performance. Experimental techniques such as surface tension measurement, viscometry, spectroscopy, light scattering, and calorimetry are often employed to study the nature and strength of these interactions. This paper highlights the fundamental aspects of surfactant-polymer interaction, their thermodynamic implications, and the practical significance of such systems in modern applications.