Charging, aggregation, and aggregate strength of humic substances in the presence of cationic surfactants: Effects of humic substances hydrophobicity and surfactant tail length

Surfactants-mediated the enhanced mobility of tetracycline in saturated porous media and its variation with aqueous chemistry

Knowledge of the mobility of tetracycline (TC) antibiotics in porous media is critical to understand their potential environmental influences. The transport characteristics of TC in sand columns with three different surfactants, including Tween 80, sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate (SDBS), and didodecyldimethylammonium bromide (DDAB) under various conditions were investigated in this study. Results demonstrated that all surfactants enhanced TC transport under neutral conditions (10 mM NaCl at pH 7.0). The observation was attributed mostly to deposition site competition, higher electrostatic repulsion between TC molecules and sand grains, steric hindrance, and the increase of TC hydrophilicity. Furthermore, the order of the transport-enhancement effects was generally observed as follows: DDAB > SDBS > Tween 80. The trend was controlled by the variation in the physicochemical properties of surfactants. It was noticed that the presence of Cu²⁺ (a model divalent cation) in the background solution, the cation-bridging contributed to the promotion effects of DDAB or Tween 80 on TC mobility. Interestingly, SDBS considerably suppressed TC transport due to the precipitation of SDBS-Cu²⁺ complexes onto sand surfaces. Moreover, the enhancement order of surfactants at pH 5.0 was similar to that pH 7.0. However, DDAB could inhibit TC transport in sand columns at pH 9.0, which were mainly caused by the decrease of electrostatic repulsion and the hydrophobicity induced by the binding cationic surfactant. Findings from this work provide novel insight into involvement of surfactants in antibiotic transport behaviors in the subsurface environment.

Heteroaggregation and Homoaggregation of Latex Particles in the Presence of Alkyl Sulfate Surfactants

Heteroaggregation and homoaggregation is investigated with time-resolved multi-angle dynamic light scattering. The aggregation rates are measured in aqueous suspensions of amidine latex (AL) and sulfate latex (SL) particles in the presence of sodium octyl sulfate (SOS) and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). As revealed by electrophoresis, the surfactants adsorb to both types of particles. For the AL particles, the adsorption of surfactants induces a charge reversal and triggers fast aggregation close to the isoelectric point (IEP). The negatively charged SL particles remain negatively charged and stable in the whole concentration range investigated. The heteroaggregation rates for AL and SL particles are fast at low surfactant concentrations, where the particles are oppositely charged. At higher concentrations, the heteroaggregation slows down above the IEP of the AL particles, where the particles become like-charged. The SDS has higher affinity to the surface compared to the SOS, which induces a shift of the IEP and of the fast aggregation regime to lower surfactant concentrations.

Strength of Flocs Formed by the Complexation of Lysozyme with Leonardite Humic Acid

Aggregation and aggregates properties of natural organic and nanosized macromolecules such as humic substances and proteins are crucial to explore so-called colloid-mediated transport and the fate of substances in soil and water environments. Therefore, the aggregation and dispersion, charging, and floc strength of lysozyme (LSZ)–leonardite humic acid (LHA) flocs were experimentally investigated. The experiments were performed in different salt concentrations and LSZ to LHA mass ratios as a function of pH. We obtained the stronger flocs at pH 4.4, where the isoelectric point (IEP) of the complex with the mass ratio 2.5 was confirmed. Thus, the aggregation of LSZ–LHA flocs is mainly caused by charge neutralization. We obtained the floc strength of 4.7 nN around IEP at low salt concentration of 3 mM, which was stronger than 2.8 nN in high salt concentration of 50 mM. The effect of salt concentration can be rationalized by charge-patch attraction at low salt concentration. With increasing mass ratio, the IEP shifted to higher pH. This is due to the increase in positive charge from LSZ in the mixture. The effect of the LSZ to LHA mass ratio on the maximum strength was weak in the range studied.