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The hydrophilic-lipophilic balance of a surfactant is a measure of the degree to which it is hydrophilic or lipophilic, determined by calculating values for the different regions of the molecule, as described by Griffin in 1949 and 1954. Other methods have been suggested, notably in 1957 by Davies.
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Griffin's method
Griffin's method for non-ionic surfactants as described in 1954 works as follows:
where
The HLB value can be used to predict the surfactant properties of a molecule:
Davies' method
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. The method works as follows:
where: