Surfactant concentration effects

Fig. 4.37 Water-heptane interfacial tension as a function of surfactant concentration. Effect of the fluorinated chain length. (From Ref. 101. Reproduced by permission of Academic Press.)...

One reason for widespread interest in the use of surfactants as gas mobihty control agents is the effectiveness at concentrations of <0.1 wt % (156,163). Some surfactants are effective below their critical micelle concentration (164). This low chemical requirement can significantly improve process economics. 

Effects of Surfactants on Solutions. A surfactant changes the properties of a solvent ia which it is dissolved to a much greater extent than is expected from its concentration effects. This marked effect is the result of adsorption at the solution s iaterfaces, orientation of the adsorbed surfactant ions or molecules, micelle formation ia the bulk of the solution, and orientation of the surfactant ions or molecules ia the micelles, which are caused by the amphipathic stmcture of a surfactant molecule. The magnitude of these effects depends to a large extent on the solubiUty balance of the molecule. An efficient surfactant is usually relatively iasoluble as iadividual ions or molecules ia the bulk of a solution, eg, 10 to mol/L. 

Fig. 5. Effect of surfactant concentration on moisture content of <500 fim coal filter cake (51). Poiat A represents 2ero surfactant concentration Poiat B,...

Increase adhesion tension. Maximize surface tension. Minimize contact angle. Alter surfactant concentration or type to maximize adhesion tension and minimize Marangoni effects. Precoat powder with wettahle monolayers, e.g., coatings or steam. Control impurity levels in particle formation. Alter crystal hahit in particle formation. Minimize surface roughness in milhng. 

If the coupling component is not ionic, however, more dramatic effects occur, as found by Hashida et al. (1979) and by Tentorio et al. (1985). Hashida used N,N-bis(2-hydroxyethyl)aniline, while Tentorio and coworkers took 1-naphthylamine and l-amino-2-methylnaphthalene as coupling components. With cationic arenediazo-nium salts and addition of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), rate increases up to 1100-fold were measured in cases where the surfactant concentration was higher than the critical micelle concentration (cmc). Under the same conditions the reaction... 

The influence of the presence of alcohols on the CMC is also well known. In 1943 Miles and Shedlovsky [117] studied the effect of dodecanol on the surface tension of solutions of sodium dodecyl sulfate detecting a significant decrease of the surface tension and a displacement of the CMC toward lower surfactant concentrations. Schwuger studied the influence of different alcohols, such as hexanol, octanol, and decanol, on the surface tension of sodium hexa-decyl sulfate [118]. The effect of dodecyl alcohol on the surface tension, CMC, and adsorption behavior of sodium dodecyl sulfate was studied in detail by Batina et al. [119]. 

The log of the reciprocal of the bulk concentration of surfactant (C in mol/ L) necessary to produce a surface or interfacial pressure of 20 raN/m, log( 1 / On= 20 i e > a 20 mN/m reduction in the surface or interfacial tension, is considered a measure of the efficiency of a surfactant. The effectiveness of surface tension reduction is the maximum effect the surfactant can produce irrespective of concentration, (rccmc = [y]0 - y), where [y]0 is the surface tension of the pure solvent and y is the surface tension of the surfactant solution at its cmc. 

Similarly to quantitative determination of high surfactant concentrations, many alternative methods have been proposed for the quantitative determination of low surfactant concentrations. Tsuji et al. [270] developed a potentio-metric method for the microdetermination of anionic surfactants that was applied to the analysis of 5-100 ppm of sodium dodecyl sulfate and 1-10 ppm of sodium dodecyl ether (2.9 EO) sulfate. This method is based on the inhibitory effect of anionic surfactants on the enzyme system cholinesterase-butyryl-thiocholine iodide. A constant current is applied across two platinum plate electrodes immersed in a solution containing butyrylthiocholine and surfactant. Since cholinesterase produces enzymatic hydrolysis of the substrate, the decrease in the initial velocity of the hydrolysis caused by the surfactant corresponds to its concentration. Amounts up to 60 pg of alcohol sulfate can be spectrometrically determined with acridine orange by extraction of the ion pair with a mixture 3 1 (v/v) of benzene/methyl isobutyl ketone [271]. 

Decreasing the pH of 3% NaCl (entries 2 and 3, Table 14) could decrease neutralization of crude oil organic acids. This neutralization increases both aqueous phase salinity and effective surfactant concentration. A lower effective surfactant concentration at pH 8 could account for the increased interfacial tension value. However, a similar pH change does not reduce IFT when the surfactant is AOS 1618 with a much lower di monosulfonate ratio (entries 6 and 7, Table 14). 

Thus, the enhancement of heat transfer may be connected to the decrease in the surface tension value at low surfactant concentration. In such a system of coordinates, the effect of the surface tension on excess heat transfer (/z — /zw)/ (/ max — w) may be presented as the linear fit of the value C/Cq. On the other hand, the decrease in heat transfer at higher surfactant concentration may be related to the increased viscosity. Unfortunately, we did not find surfactant viscosity data in the other studies. However, we can assume that the effect of viscosity on heat transfer at surfactant boiling becomes negligible at low concentration of surfactant only. The surface tension of a rapidly extending interface in surfactant solution may be different from the static value, because the surfactant component cannot diffuse to the absorber layer promptly. This may result in an interfacial flow driven by the surface tension gradi-... 

There is an extensive amount of data in the literature on the effect of many factors (e.g. temperature, monomer and surfactant concentration and types, ionic strength, reactor configuration) on the time evolution of quantities such as conversions, particle number and size, molecular weight, composition. In this section, EPM predictions are compared with the following limited but useful cross section of isothermal experimental data ... 

As an even more explicit example of this effect Figure 6 shows that EPM is able to reproduce fairly well the experimentally observed dependence of the particle number on surfactant concentration for a different monomer, namely methyl methacrylate (MMA). The polymerization was carried at 80°C at a fixed concentration of ammonium persulfate initiator (0.00635 mol dm 3). Because methyl methacrylate is much more water soluble than styrene, the drop off in particle number is not as steep around the critical micelle concentration (22.) In this instance the experimental data do show a leveling off of the particle number at high and low surfactant concentrations as expected from the theory of particle formation by coagulative nucleation of precursor particles formed by homogeneous nucleation, which has been incorporated into EPM. 

The effect of initial surfactant concentration was different according to the particle size of GACs (Fig. 4). In large particle size, selectivity was increased with increasing surfactant concentration unlike small particle size. This is because excess surfactant did not adsorb onto activated carbon due to small Ajx-... 

Modem oil spill-dispersant formulations are concentrated blends of surface-active agents (surfactants) in a solvent carrier system. Surfactants are effective for lowering the interfacial tension of the oil slick and promoting and stabilizing oil-in-water dispersions. The solvent system has two key functions (1) to reduce the viscosity of the surfactant blend to allow efficient dispersant application and (2) to promote mixing and diffusion of the surfactant blend into the oil film [601]. 

In this section the laboratory measurements of CC -foam mobility are presented along with the description of the experimental procedure, the apparatus, and the evaluation of the mobility. The mobility results are shown in the order of the effects of surfactant concentration, CC -foam fraction, and rock permeability. The preparation of the surfactant solution is briefly mentioned in the Effect of Surfactant Concentrations section. A zwitteronic surfactant Varion CAS (ZS) from Sherex (23) and an anionic surfactant Enordet X2001 (AEGS) from Shell were used for this experimental study. 

The Effect of Surfactant Concentrations, The effect of surfactant concentrations on CC -foam mobility is plotted on a log-log scale in Figure 3. The presented data points are the average mobility values obtained from a superficial velocity range of 2-10 ft/day, with the CC -foam fraction was kept constant around 80%. With Berea sandstone, ZS and AEGS surfactants were used. The measured average permeability of the Berea sandstone with 1% brine was 305 md. With Baker dolomite, AEGS was used to make comparison with Berea sandstone. The permeability of the Baker dolomite was 6.09 md measured with 1% brine solution. 

E. K. Anderberg, M. Bisrat, C. Nystrom. Physicochemical aspects of drug release. VII. The effect of surfactant concentration and drug particle size on solubility and dissolution rate of felodipine, a sparingly soluble drug. Int. I. Pharm. 1988, 47, 67-77. 

Table 3 Effect of Surfactant Concentration on CL Intensity with 1.0 X 10"5 M Pyrogallol...

Two other general ways of treating micellar kinetic data should be noted. Piszkiewicz (1977) used equations similar to the Hill equation of enzyme kinetics to fit variations of rate constants and surfactant concentration. This treatment differs from that of Menger and Portnoy (1967) in that it emphasizes cooperative effects due to substrate-micelle interactions. These interactions are probably very important at surfactant concentrations close to the cmc because solutes may promote micellization or bind to submicellar aggregates. Thus, eqn (1) and others like it do not fit the data for dilute surfactant, especially when reactants are hydrophobic and can promote micellization. 

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