While currently available titles either focus on the basics or on very specific subtopics, this text meets the need for a comprehensive survey of surfactants and their properties, with a strong emphasis on applications and their correlation to the fundamentals.
The author covers their classification, physical properties, phase behavior, adsorption, effects - such as wetting, spreading and adhesion - as well as industrial applications in personal care and cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals and food products.
Professor Tadros is a well-known expert on the topic of surfactants, with much experience in colloid science. Here, he uses his industrial experience to close the gap between fundamentals of surfactants and their relevance and applications in practice.

After finishing his PhD at Alexandria University, Tharwat Tadros was appointed lecturer in Physical Chemistry (1962-1966) at the same University. Between 1966 and 1969, he spent a sabbatical at the Agricultural University of Wageningen and T.N.O in Delft, the Netherlands. Thereafter he joined I.C.I. and ZENECA until 1994, where he researched various fields of surfactants, emulsions, suspensions, microemulsions, wetting spreading and adhesion and rheology. During that period he was also appointed visiting professor at Imperial College London, Bristol University and Reading University. In 1992, he was elected President of the International Association of Colloid and Interface Science. Since leaving ZENECA, Dr Tadros has worked as a consultant for various industries and also given several courses in his specialized field. He is the recipient of two medals from the Royal Society of Chemistry in the UK, and has more than 250 scientific papers to his name.