Buy or borrow some of the textbooks in the bibliography and
work some problems related to your interests. Excellent general
texts have been written by
Adamson [see reference list], Hiemenz [see reference list],
Hunter 1987 [see reference list], Vold and Vold [see reference list],
and Woods [see reference list]. Israelachvili [see reference list]
has written a brief and elegant overview of the field, including
a discussion of surfactants in biological systems.
Overbeek [see reference list] produced a brilliant series
of lecture demonstrations that are available on videotape.
Russel, Saville, and Schowalter [see reference list]
provide an excellent advanced treatise on the physical chemistry
of dispersions.
Specific applications of dispersion theory and practice are
presented in texts by
Hair [see reference list] (nonaqueous systems, inks, toners),
Hunter 1981 [see reference list] (charged particles),
Parfitt [see reference list] (pigments), and
Patton [see reference list] (pigments).
Specific information on surfactant chemistry is presented in
Linfield [see reference list]\ (surfactant manufacture and properties),
and Rosen [see reference list] (manufacture and properties of surfactants).
Application information on ten thousand commercial surfactants
is available in three volumes by Ash and Ash [see reference list]
More general information is found in
Matijevic [see reference list] (general reviews),
Parfitt and Rochester [see reference list] (adsorption of surfactants),
Parfitt and Singh [see reference list] (chemical analysis of powder surfaces)
Napper [see reference list] (nonionic polymeric dispersants),
Smith [see reference list] (emulsions),
and Tadros [see reference list] (solubility, adsorption, micelles).