Hydrophilic-lipophilic balance

The hydrophilic–lipophilic balance (HLB) of a surfactant is a measure of its degree of hydrophilicity or lipophilicity, determined by calculating percentages of molecular weights for the hydrophilic and lipophilic portions of the surfactant molecule, as described by Griffin in 1949[1][2] and 1954.

[4] Griffin's method for non-ionic surfactants as described in 1954 works as follows:

is the molecular mass of the hydrophilic portion of the molecule, and M is the molecular mass of the whole molecule, giving a result on a scale of 0 to 20.

The HLB value can be used to predict the surfactant properties of a molecule: In 1957, Davies suggested a method based on calculating a value based on the chemical groups of the molecule.

The advantage of this method is that it takes into account the effect of stronger and weaker hydrophilic groups.

- Number of hydrophilic groups in the molecule

- Number of lipophilic groups in the molecule