Polymer/surfactant systems can be roughly classified into three categories such as neutral/ionic
charged/ionic
and unspecified/nonionic ones
in terms of the respective surface charge of the two partners. On this ground
the interactions between the polymer and surfactant in aqueous phase are reviewed in this article. It is found that
in most cases
polymers can interact with surfactants in aqueous media by forming complexes. The driving forces binding polymers and surfactants into complexes are mainly due to the hydrophobic bonding
electrostatic attraction as well as hydrogen bonding
individually or collaboratively
depending on the physicochemical properties of the reactants
such as charge attributes and lengths of the hydrophobic chains. In addition
the formation mechanism and structure of the resultant complexes are also influenced more or less by pH