SODIUM SULFONATE OVERVIEW

Sonneborn's sodium sulfonates are made from natural petroleum oil feedstocks. As a result, the distribution of equivalent weights of our products is very broad, while the distribution of equivalent weights of a typical synthetic sodium sulfonates is narrow. The broad distribution of equivalent weights of the Sonneborn Petronate® sodium sulfonates enhances the ability of the sulfonate to interact with the oil and provides excellent emulsification compared to a synthetic sodium sulfonate of the same equivalent weight. Sonneborn's sodium sulfonates possess a structure which is composed of a poly-alkylated aromatic ring system, where the alkylates are primarily branched and short-chained, while typical synthetic sodium sulfonates are mono-alkylated aromatic ring systems where the alkylates are linear and long-chained. The presence of these short-chained branched alkyl aromatic groups provides benefits in both emulsion and rust prevention for the sodium sulfonates by improving the compatibility with the base oil.

APPLICATIONS:

Sonneborn's sodium sulfonates provide excellent emulsion quality and corrosion resistance. While the low equivalent weight sulfonates provide excellent emulsion performance, the high equivalent weight sulfonates provide unsurpassed rust prevention. Depending on the application, the balance of these two properties is critical for performance in any market. In the oilfield and mining markets, which are less concerned with rust prevention they prefer the strong emulsifier Petronate® L, while the industrial oils market, where rust prevention is a large concern, prefers the corrosion prevention of the Petronate H and Petronate HH. In the metalworking industry, a balance of both the emulsion and corrosion performance is critical to a successful formulation and the market prefers the balanced emulsion and corrosion resistance of Petronate HL.