Synergistic and antagonistic effects in micellization of mixed surfactants

•Synergistic and antagonistic interactions between surfactants in binary mixtures are reviewed.•Studies on cmc as function of surfactant headgroup charge, hydrocarbon chain length, presence of additives etc. discussed.•Impact of electrostatic, covalent and hydrogen bonding in governing synergism or antagonism in binary mixtures delineated.•Foamability and stability of foams of binary surfactant systems are discussed.•Interactions in binary surfactants are discussed from thermodynamic viewpoint.