Surfactants are surface-active agents widely used in numerous applications in our daily lives as personal care products, domestic, and industrial detergents. To determine complex mixtures of surfactants and their degradation products, unselective and rather insensitive methods, based on colorimetric and complexometric analyses are no longer employable. Analytical methodologies able to determine low concentration levels of surfactants and closely related compounds in complex matrices are required. The recent introduction of robust, sensitive, and selective mass spectrometry (MS) techniques has led to the rapid expansion of the surfactant research field including complex mixtures of isomers, oligomers, and homologues of surfactants as well as their chemically and biodegradation products at trace levels. In this review, emphasis is given to the state-of-the-art MS-based analysis of surfactants and their degradation products with an overview of the current research landscape from traditional methods involving hyphenate techniques (gas chromatography-MS and liquid chromatography-MS) to the most innovative approaches, based on high-resolution MS. Finally, we outline a detailed explanation on the utilization of MS for mechanistic purposes, such as the study of micelle formation in different solvents.

中文翻译：

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通过质谱分析表面活性剂：了解其多样性

表面活性剂是广泛应用于我们日常生活中的许多应用的表面活性剂，如个人护理产品、家用和工业洗涤剂。为了测定表面活性剂及其降解产物的复杂混合物，基于比色和络合分析的非选择性且相当不敏感的方法不再适用。需要能够确定复杂基质中低浓度表面活性剂和密切相关化合物的分析方法。最近引入的稳健、灵敏和选择性质谱 (MS) 技术导致表面活性剂研究领域迅速扩展，包括表面活性剂异构体、低聚物和同系物的复杂混合物及其痕量化学和生物降解产物。在这篇综述中，重点介绍了表面活性剂及其降解产物的最先进的基于 MS 的分析，并概述了涉及连字符技术的传统方法（气相色谱-MS 和液相色谱-MS）的当前研究前景。 ）到基于高分辨率 MS 的最具创新性的方法。最后，我们概述了将 MS 用于机械目的的详细说明，例如研究不同溶剂中胶束的形成。