Adsorption of linear alkyl benzene sulfonates on oil–water interface: Effects of Na+, Mg2+ and Ca2+ ions

The effect of charge screening for cationic surfactants on the rigidity of interfacial nanoparticle assemblies

HYPOTHESIS

Functionalizing colloidal particles with oppositely charged surfactants is crucial for stabilizing emulsions, foams, all-liquid structures, and bijels. However, surfactants can reduce the attachment energy, the driving force for colloidal self-assembly at interfaces. An open question remains on how the inherent interfacial activity of cationic surfactants influences the interfacial rigidity of particle-laden interfaces. We hypothesize that charge screening among cationic surfactants regulates the rigidity of oil/water interfaces by reducing the attachment energy of nanoparticles.

EXPERIMENTS

We investigate the interfacial rigidity of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) functionalized silica nanoparticles (Ludox® TMA) by analyzing the shape deformation of 1,4-butanediol diacrylate (BDA) droplets under varying salt and alcohol concentrations. The nanoparticle packing density is assessed using scanning electron microscopy. Attachment energy is characterized through interfacial tension measurements, three-phase contact angle analysis, and CTAB adsorption studies. We also examine the effects of interfacial rigidities on the structure of bijel films formed via roll-to-roll solvent transfer-induced phase separation (R2R-STrIPS) using confocal laser scanning microscopy.

FINDINGS

Increasing salt and alcohol concentrations decrease the interfacial rigidity of CTAB-functionalized nanoparticle films by reducing the interfacial tension. The contact angle has a minor influence on the rigidity. These results indicate that CTAB charge screening weakens the nanoparticle attachment energy to the interface. Controlling the rigidity enables the mass production of bijel sheets with consistent flatness, which is crucial for their potential applications in catalysis, energy storage, tissue engineering, and filtration membranes.

Self-Propulsion by Directed Explosive Emulsification

An active droplet system, programmed to repeatedly move autonomously at a specific velocity in a well-defined direction, is demonstrated. Coulombic energy is stored in oversaturated interfacial assemblies of charged nanoparticle-surfactants by an applied DC electric field and can be released on demand. Spontaneous emulsification is suppressed by an increase in the stiffness of the oversaturated assemblies. Rapidly removing the field releases the stored energy in an explosive event that propels the droplet, where thousands of charged microdroplets are ballistically ejected from the surface of the parent droplet. The ejection is made directional by a symmetry breaking of the interfacial assembly, and the combined interaction force of the microdroplet plume on one side of the droplet propels the droplet distances tens of times its size, making the droplet active. The propulsion is autonomous, repeatable, and agnostic to the chemical composition of the nanoparticles. The symmetry-breaking in the nanoparticle assembly controls the microdroplet velocity and direction of propulsion. This mechanism of droplet propulsion will advance soft micro-robotics, establishes a new type of active matter, and introduces new vehicles for compartmentalized delivery.

Binding of Ca2+ Ions to Alkylbenzene Sulfonates: Micelle Formation, Second Critical Concentration and Precipitation

Anionic surfactants, such as sodium linear alkylbenzene sulfonates (NaLAS), are utilized in various fields, including industry, household, and agriculture. The efficiency of their use in aqueous environments is significantly affected by the presence of cations, Ca²⁺ and Mg²⁺ in particular, as they can decrease the concentration of the surfactant due to precipitation. To understand cation-sulfonate interactions better, we study both NaLAS colloidal solutions in the presence of CaCl₂ and precipitates forming at higher salt concentrations. Upon addition of CaCl₂, we find the surface tension and critical micelle concentration of NaLAS to decrease significantly, in line with earlier findings for alkylbenzylsulfonates in the presence of divalent cations. Strikingly, an increase in the surface tension is discernible above 0.6 g L^-1 NaLAS, accompanied by the decrease of apparent micelle sizes, which in turn gives rise to transparent systems. Thus, there appears to be a second critical concentration indicating another micellar equilibrium. Furthermore, the maximum salt tolerance of the surfactant is 0.1 g L^-1 Ca²⁺, above which rapid precipitation occurs yielding sparingly soluble CaLAS₂∙2H₂O.

Spectroscopic Studies of Zwitterionic DDAPS at Planar and Droplet Oil/Water Interfaces

Developing the knowledge on surfactant interfacial phenomena is highly valuable for the advancement of technological, commercial, and industrial products, as these applications often rely on interfacial and colloidal chemistry. Zwitterionic surfactants are a less toxic alternative to standard charged surfactants. With both positively charged quaternary ammonium and negatively charged sulfonate constituents, zwitterionic DDAPS can have diverse interfacial interactions with various coadditives. In this work, we investigate DDAPS adsorption to a planar oil/water interface and its stabilization of oil-in-water nanoemulsions. By studying both interfacial geometries with surface-specific, nonlinear spectroscopy, we gain deeper insights and a molecular perspective into DDAPS's behavior in the presence of various salts and cosurfactants. From an application standpoint, zwitterionic surfactants are often mixed with other chemicals or used in an environment with pre-existing chemicals (e.g., ocean water during oil remediation). Thus, it is important to understand how such coadditives alter DDAPS's behavior and its performance as an emulsifier. Our results show that DDAPS is nearly uninfluenced by coadditives at a planar oil/water interface, but the identical coadditives are crucial for DDAPS to form and stabilize nanoemulsions. Additionally, the surfactant packing properties vary between interfaces as well as coadditives, indicating that certain interactions with the DDAPS headgroup are stronger and play a greater role in tuning DDAPS's interfacial behavior.

Percolation Characteristics and Injection Limit of Surfactant Huff-n-Puff in a Tight Reservoir

For the development of tight reservoirs, large-scale volume fracturing is frequently utilized as an effective production enhancement strategy. However, there is a significant decrease in productivity after fracturing. Improvement of production through secondary surfactant huff-n-puff has become one of the methods. In this paper, the characteristics of surfactant percolation during huff-n-puff were analyzed from macroscopic and microscopic perspectives. The production variation characteristics of the huff-n-puff were calculated by experiments and numerical methods. From Stokes' equations and phase field equations, solutions were found to analyze the effect of interfacial properties on surfactant percolation from the microscopic perspective. The findings demonstrated that a surfactant with a high displacement efficiency could not considerably increase huff-n-puff production, whereas the percolation rate had a wider influence. The surfactant with ultralow interfacial tension (<1 × 10^-2 mN/m) and a higher wetting angle (>12.6°) has a faster percolation rate. Significant huff-n-puff production can be obtained in the percolation rate range of 1.38 to 1.63 m/PV. Simultaneously, the concepts of limit and optimal injection volume were established and utilized to characterize the influence of injection parameters on production under nonextension fracture situations. Based on the data, in order to obtain high production in a short time, the injection strength should be near to the value at fracture extension, and the optimum injection volume is 1000-1200 m³/m. The findings of this study have the potential to guide the selection of the surfactant and injection parameters in the field.

Increasing ionic strength and valency of cations enhance sorption through hydrophobic interactions of PFAS with soil surfaces

The effect of soluble cations on sorption in soils of a range of anionic PFAS is not well studied. We investigated the role of three common cations (Na⁺, Ca²⁺, and Mg²⁺) at varying solution concentrations on the sorption coefficients (K_d) of 18 anionic PFAS in two contrasting soils. The effective charge of the soil suspension (Zeta potential) became less negative as the concentration of these cations increased in the soil solutions. Perfluorinated compounds showed greater sorption than polyfluorinated compounds, with sulfonates of comparable chain lengths showing higher sorption than the carboxylates. We observed that the K_d values of several PFAS in the two soils were positively correlated with the concentration of cations in solution, especially in the presence of polyvalent cations (Ca²⁺and Mg²⁺). The changes in sorption with cation concentration were more prominent for long-chain PFAS, with C > 10 PFAS being completely removed from solution at higher cation concentrations. The emerging PFAS (replacement compounds GenX and ADONA) showed negligible or little sorption (K_d < 0.6 L/kg). While several mechanisms contribute towards sorption of PFAS in the presence of cations, we conclude that the primary effect of cations is through screening of negative charges on head groups of PFAS and reorientation of molecules at the interface between organic matter surfaces and soil solution as well as charge neutralisation at soil solid surface. Screening of negative charges allows for greater hydrophobic interaction between hydrophobic tails of PFAS and soil surfaces resulting in greater sorption. Increasing cation concentrations in soil solutions could thus reduce mobility of PFAS through a soil profile.

Effects of inorganic metal ions on the mixture of single polyoxyethylene chain carboxylate surfactant and Gemini quaternary ammonium surfactant

Anionic and cationic surfactants have high surface activity due to their strong synergistic effect. However, the traditional ionic surfactants with excellent application properties are easy to precipitate in the mixture...

Ion Valency and Concentration Effect on the Structural and Thermodynamic Properties of Brine-Decane Interfaces with Anionic Surfactant (SDS)

Salt ion valency and concentration vary in actual oil reservoirs, which play an important role in the functionalities of surfactant formula during chemical flooding processes to enhance oil recovery. Herein, we report a molecular dynamics (MD) study to investigate the ion valency and concentration effect on the structural and thermodynamic properties of brine-decane interfaces with anionic surfactant (SDS), under typical reservoir conditions (353 K and 200 bar). We use two different cations (Na⁺ and Ca²⁺) and a wide range of ion concentrations (up to 3.96 M) to simulate reservoir conditions. We find that ion valency has a significant effect on the molecular configurations, which further influences the thermodynamic properties. Ca²⁺ ions can have a strong adsorption at the interface due to the strong electrostatic interactions between Ca²⁺ ions and SDS, which also results in the Cl^- ion enrichment at the interface. Furthermore, Ca²⁺ ions can form pentagon-like SDS-Ca²⁺ complexes through SDS-Ca²⁺-SDS cation bridging, which renders a nonuniform distribution of SDS at the interface. On the other hand, the cation bridging density monotonically increases as ion concentration increases for the systems without Ca²⁺ ions, while first increases, then decreases for the systems with Ca²⁺ ions. This is because the accumulation of Cl^- ions at the interface at high salt concentrations can melt SDS-Ca²⁺ complexes. This work should provide new insights into the structural and thermodynamic properties of brine-oil interfaces with an anionic surfactant, which can facilitate the optimization of chemical flooding processes.

Cold-Burst Method for Nanoparticle Formation with Natural Triglyceride Oils

The preparation of nanoemulsions of triglyceride oils in water usually requires high mechanical energy and sophisticated equipment. Recently, we showed that α-to-β (viz., gel-to-crystal) phase transition, observed with most lipid substances (triglycerides, diglycerides, phospholipids, alkanes, etc.), may cause spontaneous disintegration of microparticles of these lipids, dispersed in aqueous solutions of appropriate surfactants, into nanometer particles/drops using a simple cooling/heating cycle of the lipid dispersion (Cholakova et al. ACS Nano 2020, 14, 8594). In the current study, we show that this "cold-burst process" is observed also with natural oils of high practical interest, including coconut oil, palm kernel oil, and cocoa butter. Mean drop diameters of ca. 50-100 nm were achieved with some of the studied oils. From the results of dedicated model experiments, we conclude that intensive nanofragmentation is observed when the following requirements are met: (1) The three-phase contact angle at the solid lipid-water-air interface is below ca. 30 degrees. (2) The equilibrium surface tension of the surfactant solution is below ca. 30 mN/m, and the dynamic surface tension decreases rapidly. (3) The surfactant solution contains nonspherical surfactant micelles, e.g., ellipsoidal micelles or bigger supramolecular aggregates. (4) The three-phase contact angle measured at the contact line (frozen oil-surfactant solution-melted oil) is also relatively low. The mechanism(s) of the particle bursting process is revealed, and on this basis, the role of all of these factors is clarified and discussed. We explain all main effects observed experimentally and define guiding principles for optimization of the cold-burst process in various, practically relevant lipid-surfactant systems.

Revealing the Origin of the Specificity of Calcium and Sodium Cations Binding to Adsorption Monolayers of Two Anionic Surfactants

The studied anionic surfactants linear alkyl benzene sulfonate (LAS) and sodium lauryl ether sulfate (SLES) are widely used key ingredients in many home and personal care products. These two surfactants are known to react very differently with multivalent counterions, including Ca²⁺. This is explained by a stronger interaction of the calcium cation with the LAS molecules, compared to SLES. The molecular origin of this difference in the interactions remains unclear. In the current study, we conduct classical atomistic molecular dynamics simulations to compare the ion interactions with the adsorption layers of these two surfactants, formed at the vacuum-water interface. Trajectories of 150 ns are generated to characterize the adsorption layer structure and the binding of Na⁺ and Ca²⁺ ions. We found that both surfactants behave similarly in the presence of Na⁺ ions. However, when Ca²⁺ is added, Na⁺ ions are completely displaced from the surface with adsorbed LAS molecules, while this displacement occurs only partially for SLES. The simulations show that the preference of Ca²⁺ to the LAS molecules is due to a strong specific attraction with the sulfonate head-group, besides the electrostatic one. This specific attraction involves significant reduction of the hydration shells of the interacting calcium cation and sulfonate group, which couple directly and form surface clusters of LAS molecules, coordinated around the adsorbed Ca²⁺ ions. In contrast, SLES molecules do not exhibit such specific interaction because the hydration shell around the sulfate anion is more stable, due to the extra oxygen atom in the sulfate group, thus precluding substantial dehydration and direct coupling with any of the cations studied.

Foamability of aqueous solutions: Role of surfactant type and concentration

In this paper we study the main surface characteristics which control the foamability of solutions of various surfactants. Systematic series of experiments with anionic, cationic and nonionic surfactants with different head groups and chain lengths are performed in a wide concentration range, from 0.001 mM to 100 mM. The electrolyte (NaCl) concentration is also varied from 0 up to 100 mM. For all surfactants studied, three regions in the dependence of the foamability, V_A, on the logarithm of surfactant concentration, lgC_S, are observed. In Region 1, V_A is very low and depends weakly on C_S. In Region 2, V_A increases steeply with C_S. In Region 3, V_A reaches a plateau. To analyse these results, the dynamic and equilibrium surface tensions of the foamed solutions are measured. A key new element in our interpretation of the foaming data is that we use the surface tension measurements to determine the dependence of the main surface properties (surfactant adsorption, surface coverage and surface elasticity) on the surface age of the bubbles. In this way we interpret the results from the foaming tests by considering the properties of the dynamic adsorption layers, formed during foaming. The performed analysis reveals a large qualitative difference between the nonionic and ionic surfactants with respect to their foaming profiles. The data for the nonionic and ionic surfactants merge around two master curves when plotted as a function of the surface coverage, the surface mobility factor, or the Gibbs elasticity of the dynamic adsorption layers. This difference between the ionic and nonionic surfactants is explained with the important contribution of the electrostatic repulsion between the foam film surfaces for the ionic surfactants which stabilizes the dynamic foam films even at moderate surface coverage and at relatively high ionic strength (up to 100 mM). In contrast, the films formed from solutions of nonionic surfactants are stabilized via steric repulsion which becomes sufficiently high to prevent bubble coalescence only at rather high surface coverage (> 90%) which corresponds to related high Gibbs elasticity (> 150 mN/m) and low surface mobility of the dynamic adsorption layers. Mechanistic explanations of all observed trends are provided and some important similarities and differences with the process of emulsification are outlined.

The Role of Electrostatic Repulsion on Increasing Surface Activity of Anionic Surfactants in the Presence of Hydrophilic Silica Nanoparticles

Hydrophilic silica nanoparticles alone are not surface active. They, however, develop a strong electrostatic interaction with ionic surfactants and consequently affect their surface behavior. We report the interfacial behavior of n-heptane/anionic-surfactant-solutions in the presence of hydrophilic silica nanoparticles. The surfactants are sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and dodecyl benzene sulfonic acid (DBSA), and the diameters of the used particles are 9 and 30 nm. Using experimental tensiometry, we show that nanoparticles retain their non-surface-active nature in the presence of surfactants and the surface activity of surfactant directly increases with the concentration of nanoparticles. This fact was attributed to the electrostatic repulsive interaction between the negatively charged nanoparticles and the anionic surfactant molecules. The role of electrostatic repulsion on increasing surface activity of the surfactant has been discussed. Further investigations have been performed for screening the double layer charge of the nanoparticles in the presence of salt. Moreover, the hydrolysis of SDS molecules in the presence of silica nanoparticles and the interaction of nanoparticles with SDS inherent impurities have been studied. According to our experimental observations, silica nanoparticles alleviate the effects of dodecanol, formed by SDS hydrolysis, on the interfacial properties of SDS solution.

Effect of Washing Conditions on Cleaning Action of Linear Alkylbenzene Sulfonate in Hard Water

The effects of water hardness on textile detergency in aqueous linear dodecylbenzene sulfonate (LAS) solutions were examined under various washing conditions. Plain-woven and towel cotton fabrics and plain-woven polyester fabric were soiled with a mixture of carbon black/oleic acid. The soiled fabrics were shake-washed in the LAS solution together with the original unsoiled fabrics. Surface reflectance measurements revealed that the soil removal and redeposition decreased and increased, respectively, with increasing water hardness. The identity of the mineral species (calcium or magnesium ions) in the hard water had no notable effect on the detergency. The addition of significant amounts of extra LAS did not fully compensate the reduction in detergency in hard water. Addition of softening agents and an alkali builder to the hard water limited the reduction in detergency, but the detergency was still lower than that in the absence of hardness salts. Moreover, a high wash temperature and repeated rinse procedure did not prevent the reduction in detergency in hard water. Finally, a washing test was carried out in hard water under the conditions considered to be effective for improving the detergent quality in hard water, based on the experimental results. The LAS detergency toward the cotton fabrics under these conditions was still poorer than that in the absence of hardness salts. We concluded that using soft wash water is the best choice for maximizing the cleaning power of detergents.

Effects of Water Hardness on Textile Detergency Performance in Aqueous Cleaning Systems

The effects of water hardness on textile detergency in aqueous solutions were systematically investigated using four surfactants: sodium oleate (OLNa), linear dodecylbenzene sulfonate (LAS), sodium dodecyl sulfate (AS), and polyoxyethylene (10) dodecyl ether (AE). Water hardness was adjusted according to the standard procedure described in IEC 60734:2012. As expected, by adding hardness salts the surface tension of the OLNa solution increased. Surprisingly, the addition of hardness salts lowers the surface tension for the LAS and AS solutions. In the case of the AE solution, hardness salt did not affect the surface tension. A decrease in transmittance and foamability after adding hardness salts was observed for every anionic surfactant solution, indicating that anionic surfactants can combine with divalent ions to form insoluble precipitates. Detergency experiments were performed using cotton plain-woven and towel fabrics soiled with a carbon black and oleic acid mixture. One piece each of untreated and soiled fabric were stacked and placed horizontally in detergent solution with or without hardness salts. As a mechanical action of soil removal, the shaking of 190 spm was applied. Soil removal and redeposition due to washing were evaluated from changes in values of the Kubelka-Munk function for both fabrics. With increasing water hardness, soil removal decreased and redeposition increased. In order of decreasing detergency, the surfactants were as follows: LAS > OLNa ≈ AS > AE. The results indicate that precipitates, formed by reaction of LAS or AS with hardness salts, are strongly adsorbed on the water surface because of their hydrophobicity, but they have no detergency power. The field emission scanning electron microscopic observation and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic analysis showed that Ca(LAS)2 precipitation clung to fiber surfaces, and remained on the surfaces after washing. Significant changes in the cotton fabric due to washing were observed in mechanical properties and water absorbency.