Effect of Salt Concentration On Interfacial Behavior in The Surfactant System Water+noctadecane+diethylene Glycol Monohexyl Ether
Effect of Salt Concentration On Interfacial Behavior in The Surfactant System Water+noctadecane+diethylene Glycol Monohexyl Ether
Citation: The Journal of Chemical Physics 97, 690 (1992); doi: 10.1063/1.463563
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.463563
View Table of Contents: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/jcp/97/1?ver=pdfcov
Published by the AIP Publishing
Surface phase behavior in Langmuir monolayers of diethylene glycol mono- n -hexadecyl ether at the air-
water interface
J. Chem. Phys. 121, 10217 (2004); 10.1063/1.1806818
Critical Solution Phenomenon in TwoComponent Liquid Systems. The System WaterEthylene Glycol
MonoIsobutyl Ether
J. Chem. Phys. 33, 1816 (1960); 10.1063/1.1731510
This article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://scitation.aip.org/termsconditions. Downloaded to IP:
130.160.4.77 On: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 19:21:14
Effect of salt concentration on interfacial behavior in the surfactant system
water + n-octadecane + diethylene glycol monohexyl ether
L.-J. Chen and M.-C. Hsu
Department of Chemical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan 10764,
Republic of China
(Received 29 January 1992; accepted 17 March 1992)
We study the phase behavior and observe wetting and nonwetting behaviors, as well as the
wetting transition which occurs in the four-component surfactant system water + n-
octadecane + diethylene glycol monohexyl ether + NaCl. All experiments are performed at
constant weight ratio of water:n-octadecane (1: 1) and constant temperature 35.0 ± 0.05 ·C,
with varying NaCI concentration. It is found that the system water + n-octadecane + C 6 E2
exhibits a wetting transition lying at 17.1 wt. % of NaCI in water. This observation is further
confirmed by interfacial tension measurements. In addition to that of lyotropic salt (NaCI),
the effect of hydrotropic saIt on the interfacial wetting transition is also discussed.
690 J. Chem. Phys. 97 (1).1 July 1992 0021-9606/92/130690-05$06.00 ® 1992 American Institute of Physics
This article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://scitation.aip.org/termsconditions. Downloaded to IP:
130.160.4.77 On: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 19:21:14
L. -J. Chen and M. -C. Hsu: Effect of salt on interfacial behavior 691
II. EXPERIMENT
A. Materials
n-octadecane of 99% purity is a product of Sigma
i 2 r/J
Chemical Co. The nonionic amphiphile diethylene glycol
monohexyl ether (C6 E 2 ) of99% purity is purchased from
T
Aldrich Chemical Co., and the salt NaCI of99.5 + % purity
from Fluka Chemical Co. All these chemicals are used as
1 r/J
received without any further purification, and water is puri-
fied by a Barnstead NAPOpure II System.
1
C 1
",I B. Procedure
o Surfactant % ~ 1. Phase diagram
Water:Oil= 1:1
First, we prepare the brine at different concentrations of
NaCl. The samples are prepared in a clean glass test tube at
FIG. 2. Schematic "fish" -shape phase diagram of constant water:oil weight fixed water:oil weight ratio (I: I) with varying surfactant
ratio, for example, 1: 1. concentration. The samples are then placed in a water bath
at a temperature of35.0 ± 0.05 'c for several hours to allow
the system to reach equilibrium. Before and during the equi-
libration process, the samples are shaken vigorously several
times to ensure a thorough mixing. After equilibrium is
reached, the number of liquid phases for each sample is re-
types I-III-II. These system parameters are the alkyl chain corded at different salt NaCI concentrations. The phase
length of the surfactant, the aromaticity of the oil, and the boundary is systematically searched for each brine concen-
salt concentration. 13 For example, if the salt concentration tration by locating the surfactant concentration at which the
is chosen as the system parameter for a system of the type number of the liquid phases changes.
water + n-alkane + C 6 E 2 , the phase behavior of such a sys-
tem at constant temperature can be schematically described
by a fish-shape phase diagram with salt concentration, as a 2. Wetting transition
coordinate instead of temperature, in Fig. 2. The samples are prepared at the composition in a weight
It is well understood that both temperature and salt con- ratio of water:oil:C 6 E2 equal to 2:2: I with varying salt
centration have the same effect on phase behaviors of wa- (NaCl) concentration. The samples are placed in a water
ter + n-alkane + C 6 E2 systems as described above. How- bath which is set at a temperature lying within the three-
ever, there is no literature, at least to our knowledge, stating phase region: 35.0 ± 0.05'C. The equilibration procedure
that these two parameters also have the same effect on inter- described above is followed. After equilibrium is reached, all
facial behaviors of water + n-alkane + C 6 E2 systems. three phases are transparent with sharp, mirrorlike inter-
In the study of Robert and co-workers,7 the tempera- faces.
ture was used as the system parameter to locate the wetting Following equilibration, the upper and lower phases are
transition temperature in systems of the type water + n- carefully removed and put into a second test tube by using
alkane + C 6 E 2 • It is believed that the properties of interface pipettes. Next, one or two drops of the middle phase are
are directly related to those of the coexisting bulk phases. added to the second test tube containing only the upper and
Since temperature and salt concentration have the same ef- lower phases. The wetting and non wetting regimes can be
fect on the phase behavior of these systems, it is natural for us distinguished from the shape of the middle phase by direct
to conjecture that both temperature and salt concentration eye observation. When the middle phase forms a lenticular
also have the same effects on their interfacial behavior. If so, drop floating on the interface between the upper and lower
there should also exist a wetting transition in the systems of phases, this indicates nonwetting behavior; while when the
the type water + n-alkane + C 6 E2 at constant temperature middle phase spreads across the interface and forms a very
by varying salt concentration. It is the purpose of this study thin layer between the upper and lower phases, this indicates
to verify this point. wetting behavior.
In this manuscript, we present experimental results on Consequently, the wetting transition concentration C w
wetting transitions in the four-component water + n- can be determined by direct eye observation of the wetting
octadecane + C 6E2 + NaCI system at constant tempera- and nonwetting behaviors of the middle phase at different
ture, in which the salt concentration is varied. The experi- NaCI concentrations. When the NaCI concentration lies be-
mental procedures for determining the phase behavior and low C w , the middle phase exhibits nonwetting behavior,
locating the wetting transition in the four-component system while when it lies above C w , the middle phase exhibits wet-
water + NaCl + n-octadecane + C 6 E2 at constant tem- ting behavior.
perature 35 'c are described in the next section. The experi- In order to confirm our eye observations, a spinning-
mental results and further discussion are given in Sec. III. drop tensiometer (Kruss SITE 04) is used to measure the
4.0
interfacial tensions, while density measurements are made
by using a vibrating-tube densiometer (Paar DAM 45). 35
~
3¢<-:->2¢
I
30
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION I
25
Figure 3 shows the experimental result for the phase
diagram at constant temperature 35.0·C and constant S 20
weight ratio of water:n-octadecane ( = 1:1). As expected, "-
:z: 15
the phase diagram does exhibit a fish shape, except that the !
lower half is not a closed loop due to no Winsor type-I phase b 1.0
o
o 2 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Salinity (%)
(b)
e
FIG. 5. (a) Contact angle for three coexisting liquid phases. (b) Variation t
of contact angle e as a function of NaCI concentration for the water + n-
octadecane + C.E, + NaCI system at constant temperature 35"C. T
re'
which increase the mutual solubility between water and sur- able to us his experimental facilities. This work was support-
factant, for example, NaCI04 • Therefore, adding lyotropic ed by the National Science Council of Taiwan, Republic of
salt to a three-component surfactant system will force the China (Grant No. NSC81-0402-EOO2-15).
surfactant to move continuously from the water-rich to the
oil-rich phase, which is exactly the same effect as increasing
the temperature; while adding hydrotropic salt to a three-
component surfactant system has the same effect on phase
behavior as decreasing the temperature.
According to critical wetting theory,15.16 we should be
able to find another wetting transition from non wetting mid- I F. Neumann. Vorlesungen uber die Theorie der Capillaritat. edited by A.
Wangerin (Teubner, Leipzig, 1894), Chap. 6, Sec. 1, especially pp. 161
dle phase to wetting in the water + n-octadecane + C 6E2 and 162; F. P. Buffand H. Saltsburg, J. Chem. Phys. 26, 23 (1957); F. P.
system by decreasing the system temperature to bring the Buff, Encyclopedia of Physics, edited by S. Flugge (Springer, Berlin,
system close to its lower critical solution temperature. 7 1960), Vol. 10, Sec. 7, pp. 298 and 299.
2G. N. Antonow, J. Chim. Phys. 5, 372 (1907); Kolloid-Z. 59, 7 (1932);
However, before any wetting transition is reached, the sys- 64,336 (1933); N. K. Adam, The Physics and ChemistryofSurjaces, 3rd
tem freezes (the melting point of n-octadecane is around ed. (Oxford University, Oxford, 1941), pp. 7, 214, and 215.
28 ·C). Therefore, we have added the hydrotropic salt 3Fora review, see D. E. Sullivan and M. M. Telo da Gama, in Fluid Interfa-
NaCI04 to the system to bring it close to its lower critical cial Phenomena, edited by C. A. Croxton (Wiley, New York, 1985).
4M. R. Moldover and J. W. Cahn. Science 207,1073 (1980).
point and expect a wetting transition to occur before the S J. W. Schmidt and M. R. Moldover, J. Chem. Phys. 79, 379 (1983).
system's lower critical point is reached. "D. W. Pohl and W. 1. Goldburg, Phys. Rev. Lett. 48, 1111 (1982).
At constant weight ratio of water:n-octadecane:C6E2 7 (a) M. Robert and J. F. Jeng, J. Phys. (Paris) 49, 1821 (1988); (b) L.-J.
( = 2:2: 1) and constant temperature 35 ·C, the three liquid- Chen, J.-F. Jeng, M. Robert, and K. P. Shukla, Phys. Rev. A 42,4716
(1990).
phase coexistence region ranges from 0% to 9.0% NaCI04 3D. H. Smith and G. L. Covatch, J. Chem. Phys. 93, 6870 (1990).
weight percentage in water, which is the region where we 9 A. Estrada-Alexanders, A. Garcia-Valenzuela, and F. Guzman, J. Phys.
search for a wetting transition. The middle phase is found to Chem. 95, 219 (1991).
exhibit nonwetting behavior for the NaCI04 weight percen- 10M. Kahlweit, R. Strey, M. Aratono, G, Busse, J. Jen, and K. V. Schubert,
J. Chern. Phys. 95, 2842 (1991); M. Aratono and M. Kahlweit, ibid. 95,
tage ranging from 0% to 7.80%. For the systems of the 8578 (1991).
NaCI0 4 weight percentage higher than 7.80%, the amount II M. Kahlweit and R. Strey, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 24, 654 (1985);
oflower (aqueous) phase becomes very small. It is hard for P. K. Kilpatrick, C. A. Gorman, H. T. Davis, L. E. Scriven, and W. G.
Miller, J. Phys. Chem. 90, 5292 (1986); H. Kunieda and S. E. Friberg,
us to experimentally observe whether the middle phase wets
Bull. Chem. Soc. Jpn. 54,1010 (1981); M. Kahlweit, R. Strey, and D.
the interface between the upper and lower phases or not. Haase, J. Phys. Chem. 89, 163 (1985); M. Kahlweit, E. Lessner, and R.
However, there should exist a wetting transition in this sys- Strey, ibid. 87, 5032 (1983).
tem somewhere between the NaCI04 weight percentage I2P. A. Winsor, Trans. Faraday Soc. 44, 376 (1948).
13 (a) M. Kahlweit, E. Lessner, and R. Strey, J. Phys. Chem. 88, 1937
7.80% and 9.0% according to the critical wetting theo- (1984); (b) M. Kahlweit, R. Strey, and D. Haase, ibid. 89,163 (1985);
ry.15.16 (c) M Kahlweit, R. Strey, P. Firman, D. Haase, J. Jen, and R. Scho-
macker, Langmuir 4,499 (1988).
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 14 J. S. Rowlinson and B. Widom, Molecular Theory ofCapillarity (Claren-
don, Oxford, 1982), Chap. 8.
One of us (L. J. C.) is grateful to M. Robert for fruitful IS J. W. Cahn, J. Chem. Phys. 66, 3667 (1977).
discussions. We are indebted to C.-Y. Mou for making avail- I"C. Ebner and W. F. Saam, Phys. Rev. Lett. 38, 1486 (1977).
J. AIP
This article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse of Chem. Phys.,isVol.
content 97, No.1,
subject to the1terms
July 1992
at: http://scitation.aip.org/termsconditions. Downloaded to IP:
130.160.4.77 On: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 19:21:14