Definition of SURFACTANT

Examples of surfactant in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Some people find that surfactants take away too many of their skin’s natural oils, disrupting the skin’s barrier and drying them out. — Sara Coughlin, SELF, "Is Double Cleansing Truly Worth Your Precious Time?," 1 May 2019 In this activity the surface tension is lowered in the area where the surfactant is added, and the higher surface tension in front of the raft pulls the raft forward. — Science Buddies, Scientific American, "Surface Tension Science: Build a Raft Powered by Soap," 26 June 2014 Traditional high-pH soap and sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) are stripping surfactants; milder ones include sodium laureth sulfate (SLES), decyl glucoside, coco-glucoside, and others. — Allure, "The Skin-Care Glossary: A Comprehensive Guide to Everything You Need to Know," 17 Aug. 2018 To verify that surface tension did indeed play a role in the gecko's surface skimming ability, the researchers added a surfactant (dish soap) to the water. — Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, "Geckos’ new superpower is running on water; now we know how they do it," 6 Dec. 2018 District workers, who also treat other breeding locations in forest preserves and elsewhere, use surfactants to smother mosquitoes that make it to the pupa form. — Kathy Routliffe, chicagotribune.com, "Heat, rain, mean earlier mosquito spray operations in Wilmette, Winnetka," 9 July 2018 The mussels also contained four kinds of synthetic surfactants -- the chemicals found in detergents and cleaning products -- seven kinds of antibiotics, five types of antidepressants, more than one antidiabetic drug and one chemotherapy agent. — Susan Scutti, CNN, "Mussels in Washington's Puget Sound test positive for opioids, other drugs," 25 May 2018 Compounds that lower water’s surface tension are called surfactants, which work by separating the water molecules from one another. — Science Buddies, Scientific American, "Surface Tension Science: Build a Raft Powered by Soap," 26 June 2014 The campaign will identify products that are made without ingredients like surfactants (chemicals used to help clean and create suds) SLS and SLES, parabens, formaldehyde, phthalates, musks, or mineral oil. — Shannon Barbour, The Cut, "Sephora Is Launching a ‘Clean’ Beauty Section," 11 May 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'surfactant.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.