Interfacial tension mixtures

Estimate the interfacial tension gradient formed in alcohol-water mixtures as a function of alcohol content. Determine the minimum alcohol content necessary to form wine tears on a vertical glass wall [174] (experimental veriflcation is possible). 

Larch gum is readily soluble in water. The viscosity of these solutions is lower than that of most other natural gums and solutions of over 40% soHds are easily prepared. These highly concentrated solutions are also unusual because of their Newtonian flow properties. Larch gum reduces the surface tension of water solutions and the interfacial tension existing in water and oil mixtures, and thus is an effective emulsifying agent. As a result of these properties, larch gum has been used in foods and can serve as a gum arabic substitute. 

FIG. 15-10 Correlation of interfacial tension with mutual solubility for binary and ternary liquid mixtures. From Treyhal, Liquid Extraction, 2d ed., McGraw-Hill, New York, 1963.)... 

Lattice models for bulk mixtures have mostly been designed to describe features which are characteristic of systems with low amphiphile content. In particular, models for ternary oil/water/amphiphile systems are challenged to reproduce the reduction of the interfacial tension between water and oil in the presence of amphiphiles, and the existence of a structured disordered phase (a microemulsion) which coexists with an oil-rich and a water-rich phase. We recall that a structured phase is one in which correlation functions show oscillating behavior. Ordered lamellar phases have also been studied, but they are much more influenced by lattice artefacts here than in the case of the chain models. 

FIG. 25 Interfacial tension isotherms for homologous n-alkanesulfonates and a disulfonate mixture in the heptane/water system (1-9 RS03Na, R = C9H20 to C17H36 10 disulfonate mixture). 

FIG. 37 Synergistic mixture PS/FAES (cf. Fig. 36). Interfacial tension between co-... 

Capacitance and interfacial tension measurements were used to study the interface between Hg and mixtures of acetone + nitromethane.330 The potential was measured against an SCEin H20 and corrected for the liquid junction potential by measuring the half-wave potential of the ferrocene-... 

Acid flooding can be successful in formations that are dissolvable in the particular acid mixture, thus opening the pores. Hydrochloric acid is common, in a concentration of 6% to 30%, sometimes also with hydrofluoric acid and surfactants added (e.g., isononylphenol) [130,723]. The acidic environment has still another effect on surfactants. It converts the sulfonates into sulfonic acid, which has a lower interfacial tension with oil. Therefore a higher oil forcing-out efficiency than from neutral aqueous solution of sulfonates is obtained. Cyclic injection can be applied [4,494], and sulfuric acid has been described for acid treatment [25,26,1535]. Injecting additional aqueous lignosulfonate increases the efficiency of a sulfuric acid treatment [1798]. 

Surfactants have been widely used to reduce the interfacial tension between oil and soil, thus enhancing the efficiency of rinsing oil from soil. Numerous environmentally safe and relatively inexpensive surfactants are commercially available. Table 18.6 lists some surfactants and their chemical properties.74 The data in Table 18.6 are based on laboratory experimentation therefore, before selection, further field testing on their performance is recommended. The Texas Research Institute75 demonstrated that a mixture of anionic and nonionic surfactants resulted in contaminant recovery of up to 40%. A laboratory study showed that crude oil recovery was increased from less than 1% to 86%, and PCB recovery was increased from less than 1% to 68% when soil columns were flushed with an aqueous surfactant solution.74-76... 

Wade, W.H., et al. "Low Interfacial Tensions Involving Mixtures of Surfactants," SPE paper... 

Wade, W.H., Schechter, R.S. and Jacobson, J.K. "Low Interfacial Tensions Involving Mixtures of Surfactants," SPE paper 6002, 1976 SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, New Orleans, October 3-6. 

Cosolvent flooding is an experimental method for removing DNAPLs trapped below the water table. It involves injecting a highly concentrated aqueous mixture of solvents, such as alcohols, a chemical that is miscible with either phase in the aquifer. This process has the tendency to increase or enhance DNAPL (or LNAPL) solubility greatly, and to reduce the NAPL-water interfacial tension. Depending upon the phase behavior between the cosolvent and NAPL, a cosolvent flood can be developed to emphasize either enhanced dissolution (i.e., use of methane flooding for the dissolution of TCE) or NAPL mobilization. 

The retention time tR necessary to give adequate separation of the liquids will depend on their densities and interfacial tension, and on the form of the dispersion, and can only be determined experimentally for that mixture. The retention time is given by ... 

Selected Results. No mutual intensification of interfacial effects is observed between Na dodecyl sulfate as the first member of the homologous series of dodecyl ether sulfates and LAS. In Fig. 11, the oil/ water interfacial tensions are shown. Neither the electrostatic nor the van der Waal s interactions of the mixtures are intensified. 

Olive oil/water interfacial tension for LAS/Alkyl ether sulfate mixtures (purity LAS- technical product, ether... 

Kahl, H., Wadewitz, T., and Winkelmann, J. Surface tension and interfacial tension ofbinary organic liquid mixtures, / Chem. Eng. Data, 48(6) 1500-1507, 2003. 

Flow and mass transfer are influenced in many ways by the energetic conditions at the interface [26]. These conditions are described by the interfacial tension defined by the change of the free enthalpy with interfacial area. In general, interfacial tensions between liquids, and especially between liquid mixtures, cannot be calculated, but must be measured. 

The integrated DLS device provides an example of a measurement tool tailored to nano-scale structure determination in fluids, e.g., polymers induced to form specific assemblies in selective solvents. There is, however, a critical need to understand the behavior of polymers and other interfacial modifiers at the interface of immiscible fluids, such as surfactants in oil-water mixtures. Typical measurement methods used to determine the interfacial tension in such mixtures tend to be time-consuming and had been described as a major barrier to systematic surveys of variable space in libraries of interfacial modifiers. Critical information relating to the behavior of such mixtures, for example, in the effective removal of soil from clothing, would be available simply by measuring interfacial tension (ILT ) for immiscible solutions with different droplet sizes, a variable not accessible by drop-volume or pendant drop techniques [107]. 

Fig. 23 a Image of a microfluidic chip used for IFT measurements filled with liquid dye to illuminate channels. To perform the measurement, drops are injected (fluid la and b) are injected into an immiscible stream (2). Additional immiscible matrix is added (3a and 3b) conveying the drops into channel 4 for analysis and measurement. Constrictions in channel 4 accelerate/stretch the drops. Multiple constrictions enable measurement at different interface age. The channel geometry is shown schematically in the inset (from [108]). b Interfacial tension (ct) of water/ethylene glycol mixtures (binary drops) in PDMS oil, as a function of composition ((j)). (Reproduced with permission from [109])... 

Microemulsions are thermodynamically stable mixtures. The interfacial tension is almost zero. The size of drops is very small, and this makes the microemulsions look clear. It has been suggested that microemulsion may consists of bicontinuous structures, which sounds more plausible in these four-component microemulsion systems. It has also been suggested that microemulsion may be compared to swollen micelles (i.e., if one solubilizes oil in micelles). In such isotropic mixtures, short-range order exists between droplets. As found from extensive experiments, not all mixtures of water-oil-surfactant-cosurfactant produce a microemulsion. This has led to studies that have attempted to predict the molecular relationship. 

In certain cases the interfacial tension observed initially was close to the calculated value, but fell lower with lapse of time, sometimes considerably thus with water and a liquid paraffin mixture the surface tensions of the two phases were respectively... 

Lorenz and Liebmann have measured the interfacial tension of molten lead against a mixture in molecular proportions of Pb Cla and KOI between 450° and 600°. The results may be expressed approximately by the formula considerable experimental errors make the figures somewhat uncertain. 

Oligomers of perfluorohexyl-ethene fulfilled these expectations in all preclinical studies, in vitro tests as well in animal tests. A radical polymerisation, followed by ultra-purification steps, created a crystal clear gel-like substance. The behaviours of the mixture of dimeric, trimeric and tetrameric star-shaped species with an inner core of hydrocarbon bonds and an outer layer of perfluoro-alkyl chains could be adjusted by the ratio of the dimeric, trimeric and tetrameric species, using a thin layer distillation. In dependence on this ratio, the viscosity could be adjusted in the range between 90 mPas and 1700 mPas, the specific density between 1.60 g/ml and 1.66 g/ml and the interfacial tension against water between... 

When mixing two surfactants species in a SOW system, an equilibrium takes place between the oil and water phases and the interface for each species. Since the two species do not necessarily exhibit the same affinity for the interface and the oil and water bulk phases, the compositions of the surfactant mixtures at interface and in the phases might be different. For instance if a very hydrophilic species is mixed with a very lipophihc one, as often recommended in the old formulation literature, then the hydrophihc surfactant has a strong tendency to partition in water, whereas the lipophihc one would partition in the oil. In this case the surfactant mixture in water will contain a large majority of hydrophilic species, i.e., it will be very hydrophilic, whereas the oil phase will predominantly contain the hpophihc species, with the remaining adsorbing at interface. This situation in which each species actuates on its own, more or less independently of the other, has been called non-collective behavior. Since the surfactant mixture composition at interface is often the one that commands the actual property of the system, such as the interfacial tension or the stabihty of the emulsion, it is most important to know how to calculate or measure the characteristics of the mixture present at interface. Such methods will be discussed in the next section. 

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