The aim of this book is to provide a comprehensive, well-structured insight into the physical chemistry of liquid foams which can be used by both academics and industrialists. Liquid foams may occur naturally or by design and may be desirable or undesirable. Generally, there is a multitude of complex causes of foaming and antifoaming and the text is structured to give clarity to the field by providing an up-to-date, state-of-the-art guide explaining the chemistry of real foam systems. It is hoped that the reader will achieve a reasonably clear understanding of why foaming occurs, how it can be measured and how it can be prevented. As the use of foams spans different disciplines, some introductory aspects of physics, chemical engineering and material science of foams are included but this is relatively easy to follow. This book is orientated toward the descriptive rather than the theoretical and contains many diagrams. It is also a rich source of information and references, arranged in a way which the reader should find useful and also provides an historical prospect to the area of foams and foaming.

The most popular academic books dealing solely with foams include the classics Foams by J. J. Bikerman (1973), published by Springer-Verlag, Berlin and The Physics of Foams by D. Weaire and S. Hutzler (1999), published by Clarendon Press, Oxford. Both of these books ran into several updated editions but considerable advancements in the field have been made since their publication. Other early texts are Foams and Biliquid Foams-Aphrons by F. Sebba (1987), published by Wiley and the two books – Antifoaming (edited by P. Garrett, 1993) and Foams (edited by R. K. Prud'homme and S. A. Kahn, 1996) – published in the Surfactant Science Series (Marcel Dekker). These are fairly well-read books but are essentially a collection of viewpoints which describe many varied aspects of foaming and antifoaming science. Foam and Foam Films by D. Exerowa and P. M. Kriglyako (1997), published by Elsevier in the Studies in Interfacial Science Series, has been well received but presents a strongly fundamental text with the main emphasis on thin films. More recently is the book Foam Engineering, edited by P. Stevenson (2012) and published by Wiley, covers rheology, flow and foam processing and is aimed toward the chemical engineering community.