Interfacial tension surfactants

Effect of Temperature. In the absence of surfactant, interfacial tensions of the Athabasca 1 211. Karamay 1 51, and other heavy oils 1 321 show little or no dependence on temperature. For surfactant-containing systems, Figure 6 shows an example of the effect of temperature (50-200°C) on interfacial tensions for the Athabasca, Clearwater and Peace River bitumens in Sun Tech IV solutions containing 0 and 10 g/L NaCI. The interfacial tension behavior for the three bitumens was very similar. At a given temperature, the presence of brine caused a reduction in interfacial tension by one to two orders of magnitude. The tensions were seen to increase substantially with temperature. For the case of no added NaCI, the values approached those observed T211 in the absence of surfactant. 

The effects of surface tension on sessile and pendent drops or lenses are but a simple manifestation of capillary hydrostatics. The field of capillarity can be far more extensive, principally when coupled with electromagnetic forces and also for liquid interfaces in motion, or in the motion in liquid interfaces that may result from local variations in surface tension as may be caused, for example, by local variations in temperature, or by the localized introduction of surfactants (interfacial tension modifiers), or by localized space-delimited chemical reactions. Wicking flows (as in heat pipes ) and flows in porous media (as in petroleum reservoir displacement) are a few of many other examples in which interfacial forces play a predominant role. ... 

A zero or near-zero contact angle is necessary otherwise results will be low. This was found to be the case with surfactant solutions where adsorption on the ring changed its wetting characteristics, and where liquid-liquid interfacial tensions were measured. In such cases a Teflon or polyethylene ring may be used [47]. When used to study monolayers, it may be necessary to know the increase in area at detachment, and some calculations of this are available [48]. Finally, an alternative method obtains y from the slope of the plot of W versus z, the elevation of the ring above the liquid surface [49]. 

Fig. III-9. Representative plots of surface tension versus composition, (a) Isooctane-n-dodecane at 30°C 1 linear, 2 ideal, with a = 48.6. Isooctane-benzene at 30°C 3 ideal, with a = 35.4, 4 ideal-like with empirical a of 112, 5 unsymmetrical, with ai = 136 and U2 = 45. Isooctane-

Yaminsky and Yaminskaya [114] have used a Wilhelmy plate to directly measure the interfacial tension (and hence infer the contact angle) for a surfactant solution on... 

Thus, to encourage wetting, 7sl and 7lv should be made as small as possible. This is done in practice by adding a surfactant to the liquid phase. The surfactant adsorbs to both the liquid-solid and liquid-vapor interfaces, lowering those interfacial tensions. Nonvolatile surfactants do not affect 7sv appreciably (see, however. Section X-7). It might be thought that it would be sufficient merely to lower ytv and that a rather small variety of additives would suffice to meet all needs. Actually it is equally if not more important that the surfactant lower 7sL> and each solid will make its own demands. 

Thus, adding surfactants to minimize the oil-water and solid-water interfacial tensions causes removal to become spontaneous. On the other hand, a mere decrease in the surface tension of the water-air interface, as evidenced, say, by foam formation, is not a direct indication that the surfactant will function well as a detergent. The decrease in yow or ysw implies, through the Gibb s equation (see Section III-5) adsorption of detergent. 

In addition to lowering the interfacial tension between a soil and water, a surfactant can play an equally important role by partitioning into the oily phase carrying water with it [232]. This reverse solubilization process aids hydrody-namically controlled removal mechanisms. The partitioning of surface-active agents between oil and water has been the subject of fundamental studies by Grieser and co-workers [197, 233]. 

One may rationalize emulsion type in terms of interfacial tensions. Bancroft [20] and later Clowes [21] proposed that the interfacial film of emulsion-stabilizing surfactant be regarded as duplex in nature, so that an inner and an outer interfacial tension could be discussed. On this basis, the type of emulsion formed (W/O vs. O/W) should be such that the inner surface is the one of higher surface tension. Thus sodium and other alkali metal soaps tend to stabilize O/W emulsions, and the explanation would be that, being more water- than oil-soluble, the film-water interfacial tension should be lower than the film-oil one. Conversely, with the relatively more oil-soluble metal soaps, the reverse should be true, and they should stabilize W/O emulsions, as in fact they do. An alternative statement, known as Bancroft s rule, is that the external phase will be that in which the emulsifying agent is the more soluble [20]. A related approach is discussed in Section XIV-5. 

If an ionic surfactant is present, the potentials should vary as shown in Fig. XIV-5c, or similarly to the case with nonsurfactant electrolytes. In addition, however, surfactant adsorption decreases the interfacial tension and thus contributes to the stability of the emulsion. As discussed in connection with charged monolayers (see Section XV-6), the mutual repulsion of the charged polar groups tends to make such films expanded and hence of relatively low rr value. Added electrolyte reduces such repulsion by increasing the counterion concentration the film becomes more condensed and its film pressure increases. It thus is possible to explain qualitatively the role of added electrolyte in reducing the interfacial tension and thereby stabilizing emulsions. 

Dispersion is the process of wetting the surface of the metal, thereby penetrating the oil film. Surfactants can reduce the surface tension and interfacial tension of the cleaning solution at the metal—Hquid interface. As the cleaner undercuts and penetrates the oil, the cleaner breaks the oil into small droplets which then float to the surface. 

Process effectiveness depends on maintaining an ultralow (ca 10 ° N/m (10 dynes/cm)) interfacial tension between the injected surfactant slug and the cmde oil (213). The effect of petroleum composition on oil solubilization by surfactants has been the subject of extensive study (214). 

In the 1990s, the thmst of surfactant flooding work has been to develop surfactants which provide low interfacial tensions in saline media, particularly seawater require less cosurfactant are effective at low concentrations and exhibit lower adsorption on rock. Nonionic surfactants such as alcohol ethoxylates, alkylphenol ethoxylates (215) and propoxylates (216), and alcohol propoxylates (216) have been evaluated for this appHcation. More recently, anionic surfactants have been used (216—230). 

Critical Micelle Concentration. The rate at which the properties of surfactant solutions vary with concentration changes at the concentration where micelle formation starts. Surface and interfacial tension, equivalent conductance (50), dye solubilization (51), iodine solubilization (52), and refractive index (53) are properties commonly used as the basis for methods of CMC determination. 

Furthermore, in a series of polyoxyethylene nonylphenol nonionic surfactants, the value of varied linearly with the HLB number of the surfactant. The value of K2 varied linearly with the log of the interfacial tension measured at the surfactant concentration that gives 90% soil removal. Carrying the correlations still further, it was found that from the detergency equation of a single surfactant with three different polar sods, was a function of the sod s dipole moment and a function of the sod s surface tension (81). 

Finally, some general rules for the amount of surfactant appear to be vaHd (13). For anionic surfactants the average size of droplets is reduced for an increase of surfactant concentration up to the critical micellization concentration, whereas for nonionic surfactants a reduction occurs also for concentrations in excess of this value. The latter case may reflect the solubiHty of the nonionic surfactant in both phases, causing a reduction of interfacial tension at higher concentrations, or may reflect the stabilizing action of the micelles per se. 

A reduction of the o/w interfacial tension has a disadvantage because it makes the contact angle 9 more sensitive to small differences between and y. After a certain concentration of surfactant in the oil phase has brought the contact angle to 90°, the process is repeated but with the surfactant added to the oil before the phases are brought into contact. If the water droplet does not spread and its contact angle is in excess of 90°, the surfactant is added to the aqueous phase. 

The influence of amphiphiles on interfacial properties interfacial tension, wetting behavior, dynamical aspects such as the question of how small amounts of surfactant influence the kinetics of phase separation. 

Several components of the organic phase contribute greatly to the character of the final product. The pore size of the gel is chiefly determined by the amount and type of the nonsolvent used. Dodecane, dodecanol, isoamyl alcohol, and odorless paint thinner have all been used successfully as nonsolvents for the polymerization of a GPC/SEC gel. Surfactants are also very important because they balance the surface tension and interfacial tension of the monomer droplets. They allow the initiator molecules to diffuse in and out of the droplets. For this reason a small amount of surfactant is crucial. Normally the amount of surfactant in the formula should be from 0.1 to 1.0 weight percent of the monomers, as large amounts tend to emulsify and produce particles less than 1 yam in size. 

Detergency may be defined as the removal of dirt from solid surfaces by surface chemical means [29], and may be related to several surfactant properties, including wetting and rewelting ability, foam generation, and surface and interfacial tension. It has long been observed... 

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. 

Studies on mechanisms are described by Balzer [192]. In the case of anionics the residual oil in the injection zone is removed via displacement into the adjacent reservoirs ether carboxylates show their good adaptation to differences in temperature and salinity. Further it was found from interfacial tension measurements, adsorption and retention studies, and flooding tests that use of surfactant blends based on ether carboxylates and alkylbenzensulfonates resulted... 

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