Foam films from insoluble surfactants, methods

Method for formation of foam films from insoluble surfactants... 

One useful method of aqueous defoaming is to add a nonfoam sta-bihzing surfac tant which is more surface-active than the stabilizing substance in the foam. Thus a foam stabilized with an ionic surfactant can be broken by the addition of a very surface-active but nonstabihzing sihcone oil. The sihcone displaces the foam stabilizer from the interface by virtue of its insolubility. However, it does not stabilize the foam because its foam films have poor elasticity and rupture easily. 

In the method developed by Exerowa, Cohen and Nikolova [144] the insoluble (or slightly soluble) monolayers are obtained by adsorption from the gas phase. A special device (Fig. 2.28) was constructed for the purpose a ring a in the measuring cell of Scheludko and Exerowa for formation of microscopic foam films at constant capillary pressure (see Section 2.1.2.). The insoluble (or slightly soluble) substance from reversoir b is placed in this ring. Conditions for the adsorption of the surfactant on either surface of the bi-concave drop are created in the closed space of the measuring cell. The surfactant used was n-decanol which at temperatures lower than 10°C forms a condensed monolayer. Thus, it is possible to obtain common thin as well as black foam films. The results from these studies can be seen in Section 3.4.3.3. 

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