The HLB System

Recently we've had some discussions about HLB. Although it is rather an old system, basically designed for PEG-based surfactants, it is still useful as you're designing your system and searching for ingredients.

HLB stands for hydrophilic/lipophilic balance. The higher the HLB, the more water soluble a certain ingredient.

Each surfactant (this is basically maded for non-ionic surfactants) has an HLB value between 0-20. 0 is the completely oil soluble end and 20 is the completely water soluble end.

Each surfactant, depending on the HLB has a certain function: W/O emulsifier, wetting agent, solubilizer and so on. As you belnd different surfactants, the final HLB would be the stoichiometric sum of the surfactants.

Although these figures are broad range, knowing the logic and being aware of its meaning would help you save time and money as you're looking for a certain surfactant for a certain purpose.

I hope you enjoy this infographic and it would help you for a quick overview.

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