Effects of Surfactants and Polyelectrolytes on the Interaction between a Negatively Charged Surface and a Hydrophobic Polymer Surface

Fabrication of chitin nanofiber-PDMS composite aerogels from Pickering emulsion templates with potential application in hydrophobic organic contaminant removal

Natural polymers have aroused increasing attention in water treatment but their application in removing hydrophobic organic contaminants (HOCs) was limited due to their hydrophilicity. Herein, hydrophobic aerogels were successfully fabricated from Pickering emulsions stabilized by chitin nanofibers (ChNF) with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) as dispersed phase and glutaraldehyde as a crosslinking agent, and their performance in HOCs removal were evaluated. The Pickering emulsions with PDMS ratios of 2.5-20% v/v showed high stability, demonstrating great potential as aerogel templates. The solidified PDMS droplets were evenly distributed within the matrix, contributing to homogeneous and permanent hydrophobicity. The composite aerogels with water contact angles of over 130° could selectively remove non-aqueous phase HOCs from water. The CCl₄ adsorption capacity was 521-2820 wt%, depending on PDMS contents. Meanwhile, the mechanical resilience of the composite aerogels was significantly improved, facilitating the adsorbent regeneration by simple mechanical squeezing. The adsorption capacity remained above 85% for 24 cycles. Moreover, the aerogels could also remove dissolved HOCs from water with a maximum adsorption capacity of 1.34 mg/g for 10 mg/L TCE. This work reveals the potential of Pickering emulsions in the fabrication of composite hydrophobic materials from natural biopolymers with promising application in HOCs related water treatment.

Surface science of cosmetic substrates, cleansing actives and formulations

The development of shampoo and cleansing formulations in cosmetics is at a crossroads due to consumer demands for better performing, more natural products and also the strong commitment of cosmetic companies to improve the sustainability of cosmetic products. In order to go beyond traditional formulations, it is of great importance to clearly establish the science behind cleansing technologies and appreciate the specificity of cleansing biological surfaces such as hair and skin. In this review, we present recent advances in our knowledge of the physicochemical properties of the hair surface from both an experimental and a theoretical point of view. We discuss the opportunities and challenges that newer, sustainable formulations bring compared to petroleum-based ingredients. The inevitable evolution towards more bio-based, eco-friendly ingredients and sustainable formulations requires a complete rethink of many well-known physicochemical principles. The pivotal role of digital sciences and modelling in the understanding and conception of new ingredients and formulations is discussed. We describe recent numerical approaches that take into account the specificities of the hair surface in terms of structuration, different methods that study the adsorption of formulation ingredients and finally the success of new data-driven approaches. We conclude with practical examples on current formulation efforts incorporating bio-surfactants, controlling foaming and searching for new rheological properties.

Stability of Lipid Coatings on Nanoparticle-Decorated Surfaces

Lipid membranes supported on solid surfaces and nanoparticles find multiple applications in industrial and biomedical technologies. Here, we explore in silico the mechanisms of the interactions of lipid membranes with nanostructured surfaces with deposited nanoparticles and explain the characteristic particle size dependence of the uniformity and stability of lipid coatings observed in vitro. Simulations are performed to demonstrate the specifics of 1,2-dimyristoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DMPC) lipid membrane adhesion to hydrophilic and hydrophobic nanoparticles ranging in size from 1.5 to 40 nm using an original coarse-grained molecular dynamics model with implicit solvent and large simulation boxes (scales up to 280 × 154 × 69 nm³). We find that one of the major factors that affects the uniformity and stability of lipid coatings is the disjoining pressure in the water hydration layer formed between the lipid membrane and hydrophilic solid surface. This effect is accounted for by introducing a special long-range lipid-solid interaction potential that mimics the effects of the disjoining pressure in thin water layers. Our simulations reveal the physical mechanisms of interactions of lipid bilayers with solid surfaces that are responsible for the experimentally observed nonmonotonic particle size dependence of the uniformity and stability of lipid coatings: particles smaller than the hydration layer thickness (<2-3 nm) or larger than ∼20 nm are partially or fully enfolded by a lipid bilayer, whereas particles of the intermediate size (5-20 nm) cause membrane perforation and pore formation. In contrast, hydrophobic nanoparticles, which repel the hydration layer, tend to be encapsulated within the hydrophobic interior of the membrane and coated by the lipid monolayer. The proposed model can be further extended and applied to a wide class of systems comprising nanoparticles and nanostructured substrates interacting with lipid and surfactant bilayers and monolayers.

Bubble Attachment to Cellulose and Silica Surfaces of Varied Surface Energies: Wetting Transition and Implications in Foam Forming

To better understand the complex system of wet foams in the presence of cellulosic fibers, we investigate bubble-surface interactions by following the effects of surface hydrophobicity and surface tension on the contact angle of captive bubbles. Bubbles are brought into contact with model silica and cellulose surfaces immersed in solutions of a foaming surfactant (sodium dodecyl sulfate) of different concentrations. It is observed that bubble attachment is controlled by surface wetting, but a significant scatter in the behavior occurs near the transition from partial to complete wetting. For chemically homogeneous silica surfaces, this transition during bubble attachment is described by the balance between the energy changes of the immersed surface and the frictional surface tension of the moving three-phase contact line. The situation is more complex with chemically heterogeneous, hydrophobic trimethylsilyl cellulose (TMSC). TMSC regeneration, which yields hydrophilic cellulose, causes a dramatic drop in the bubble contact angle. Moreover, a high interfacial tension is required to overcome the friction caused by microscopic (hydrophilic) pinning sites of the three-phase contact line during bubble attachment. A simple theoretical framework is introduced to explain our experimental observations.

Air-Stable Aerophobic Polydimethylsiloxane Tube with Efficient Self-Removal of Air Bubbles

The adherence of underwater air bubbles to surfaces is a serious cause of malfunction in applications such as microfluidics, transport, and space devices. However, realizing spontaneous and additional unpowered transport of underwater air bubbles inside tubes remains challenging. Although superhydrophilic polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) tubes are attracting attention as air bubble repellents, superhydrophilic PDMS, which is fabricated via oxygen plasma treatment, has a disadvantage in that it is weak against aging. Here, we present a tube with the ability to self-remove air bubbles, which overcomes the drawback of rapid aging. PDMS containing Silwet L-77 with a hierarchical nano-microstructure exhibiting subaqueous aerophobicity was fabricated. We conducted adherence and saturation experiments of air bubbles using the fabricated PDMS tube with Silwet L-77 to investigate the mechanism of bubbles adhering to and separating from the fabricated tube surface. The developed PDMS with Silwet L-77 exhibits a strong self-removal effect with an air bubble removal of 97.7%. The adherence and saturation experiments suggest that the transparent superhydrophilic-underwater aerophobic PDMS is a potentially exceptional tool for spontaneously separating air bubbles attached to tube surfaces.

Specific Ion Effects on the Interaction of Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Self-Assembled Monolayers

Interactions between mineral surfaces and organic molecules are fundamental to life processes. The presence of cations in natural environments can change the behavior of organic compounds and thus alter the mineral-organic interfaces. We investigated the influence of Na⁺, Mg²⁺, Ca²⁺, Sr²⁺, and Ba²⁺ on the interaction between two models, self-assembled monolayers, that were tailored to have hydrophobic -CH₃ or hydrophilic -COO(H) terminations. Atomic force microscopy in chemical force mapping mode, where the tips were functionalized with the same terminations, was used to measure adhesion forces between the tip and substrate surfaces, to gather fundamental information about the role of these cations in the behavior of organic compounds and the surfaces where they adsorb. Adhesion force between hydrophobic surfaces in 0.5 M NaCl solutions that contained 0.012 M divalent cations did not change, regardless of the ionic potential, that is, the charge per unit radius, of the cation. For systems where one or the other surface was functionalized with carboxylate, -COO(H), mostly in its deprotonated form, -COO^-, a reproducible change in the adhesion force was observed for each of the ions. The trend of increasing adhesion force followed the pattern: Na⁺ ≈ Mg²⁺ < Sr²⁺ < Ca²⁺ < Ba²⁺, suggesting that ionic potential, thus hydrated radius, controls the interaction. The presence of a -CH₃ surface in the asymmetric system leads to lower adhesion forces than in the hydrophilic system, whereas the ionic trend remains the same. Although specific ion effects are felt in both systems, the lower adhesion force in the asymmetric system, compared with the hydrophilic system, implies that the -CH₃ surface plays an important role.

Influence of Perfluorooctanoic Acid on the Transport and Deposition Behaviors of Bacteria in Quartz Sand

The significance of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) on the transport and deposition behaviors of bacteria (Gram-negative Escherichia coli and Gram-positive Bacillus subtilis) in quartz sand is examined in both NaCl and CaCl2 solutions at pH 5.6 by comparing both breakthrough curves and retained profiles with PFOA in solutions versus those without PFOA. All test conditions are found to be highly unfavorable for cell deposition regardless of the presence of PFOA; however, 7%-46% cell deposition is observed depending on the conditions. The cell deposition may be attributed to micro- or nanoscale roughness and/or to chemical heterogeneity of the sand surface. The results show that, under all examined conditions, PFOA in suspensions increases cell transport and decreases cell deposition in porous media regardless of cell type, presence or absence of extracellular polymeric substances, ionic strength, and ion valence. We find that the additional repulsion between bacteria and quartz sand caused by both acid-base interaction and steric repulsion as well as the competition for deposition sites on quartz sand surfaces by PFOA are responsible for the enhanced transport and decreased deposition of bacteria with PFOA in solutions.