Surfactant - What exactly does it do?

[Simon Lloyd]

Hello,

I understand the basic concept of how a lava lamp works (i think!)

- the wax heats up, and the relative density (to the liquid) lowers, it rises, it cools, relative density increases and so it sinks.

 

What role does the surfactant have in the nature of the wax and its behaviour?

 

What common surfactants have people found to be useful?

 

Thanks, Simon

[Da9L]

As i understand it you add something like Propylene Glycol to make the water more dense.. This will then make it easier for the wax to rise when it is melted .. When it rises it cools down and density returns to be more dense than the water again. Therefore it is important to find the right balance in the density of the water so that the wax will not allways be at top.

 

As i understand what the surfactant does it that it breaks down the wax. The more surfactant theres in the water the less is the chance that the wax will create long column shaped structures because the surfactant will break the wax where it is thinest therefore creating two blobs instead of one long column shaped blob..

 

I hope someone can explain it better than me as im not very good at english! And this is also just what i THINK im not sure about it !