Abstract
The commercial importance of natural surfactants is evidenced from the increasing trends in their production and the number of industrial applications due to its potential physicochemical properties. Currently, these compounds are moving several industries in the food, chemical and pharmaceutical sectors in which they demand the development of technologies in the industrial and environmental areas. The objectives of the present study were to evaluate the surfactant properties of the Artocarpus heterophyllus plant extract and its application in oil removal of solid surface. Studies on the surfactant properties analyses performed were the surface tension, emulsification activity using different hydrocarbons and vegetable oils, the haemolytic activity, the surface tension stability in different temperatures, pH and addition of salt, test of dispersion, toxicity test, the critical micelle concentration and the ion charges. To evaluate the capacity of this surfactant on oil removal in engine parts, small-scale tests conducted using steel nuts of different sizes. The results showed that this surfactant of vegetable origin obtained from fruit extract exhibited surfactant properties due to the presence of the haemolytic activity and the reduction of the surface tension of water from 72.00 ± 0.14 mN / m to 26.90 ± 0.20 mN / m, with the critical micelle concentration of 0.050 g / L with the increase values of the emulsification activity ranging from 42 ± 0.12 % and 100 ± 0.05 % on all hydrophobic compounds (corn oil, sunflower oil, soybean oil, petroleum, n-hexadecane, diesel and motor oil). The results also showed a considerable stability of these biosurfactants derived from fruit extract submitted to different temperature (stability of 26.11 ± 0.23), pH (stability of 25.63 ± 0.21) and the salt concentrations (stability of 25.79 ± 0.08). And in the result of oil displacement test demonstrated that the biosurfactant vegetable could remove 1.872 cm2 the motor oil. With the characteristic of low toxicity (germination index with values of 100 at 98 %) of biosurfactant and the efficient oil removal on a solid surface between 82.6 ± 0.5 a 78.4 ± 0.6 %, can be considered new perspectives with potential to be marketed and replace the application of chemical surfactants.
