Abstract:Three surfactant monomers of maleic hemiester were synthesized in two steps ,and the structures of the products and intermediates were identified by IR and 1HNMR. The surface activity and emulsification properties of the products were measured. The results showed that the lowest surface tension of SHE12 was 27.5mN/m,SHE16 was 30.5mN/m and SHE18 was 37.2mN/m. Compared with normal surfactant SDS, the cmc values were decreased at great degree (1~2 orders of magnitude).Furthermore, the lg(cmc) of surfactants decreased nearly linearly along with the growth of alkyl chain.The emulsification properties of SHE16 and SHE18 were superior to that of SDS and SHE12. The results of viscosity measures showed that the copolymers of acrylamide/sodium acrylate/SHE12 existed critical association concentration(CAC) and had the better tackify performance than HPAM.