Thermodynamic Investigation of Cationic Surfactants Effect on Oil-Water Interfacial Tension

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

1 Chemical Engineering Department, School of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran

2 Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) Research Center, IOR/EOR Research Institute, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran

Abstract

Multi-phase fluid flow through porous media is strongly dependent on interfacial tension of immiscible fluids. Fluid mechanics will be affected by changing the interfacial tension. This paper describes a new approach to predict the interfacial tension at the oil-water system in the presence of an ionic surfactant. This study equation is based on Butler equation, often used for obtaining surface tension equations at different interfaces. The Debye–Hückel theory is used to determine activity coefficients of surfactant in the bulk phase. Cationic surfactants, including decyl trimethylammonium bromide (C10TAB) and dodecyl trimethylammonium bromide (C12TAB), are used to validate the equation. The new final equation can properly describe the alkane-water interfacial tension in the presence of single surfactant solutions. In this study, alkanes, including hexane, heptane, octane, decane, dodecane, and tetradecane are considered as the oil phase. The following parameters are obtained by curve-fitting: 1- molar surface area, and 2- bulk-surface distribution coefficient of surfactant. The alteration of equation parameters at different alkane-water systems is discussed. The newly developed equation is in a good agreement with the literature experimental data. This approach can be particularly important in the practical use of surfactants for the reduction of oil-water interfacial tension when experimental data are rare.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

[1] M.J. Rosen, J.T. Kunjappu, Surfactants and interfacial phenomena, John Wiley & Sons, 2012.
[2] D. Möbius, R. Miller, V. Fainerman, Surfactants: Chemistry, Interfacial Properties, Applications, Elsevier Amsterdam, 2001.
[3] J.W. Gibbs, H.A. Bumstead, W.R. Longley, The collected works of J. Willard Gibbs, Longmans, Green and Company, 1928.
[4] N. Mucic, N. Kovalchuk, E. Aksenenko, V. Fainerman, R. Miller, Adsorption layer properties of alkyltrimethylammonium bromides at interfaces between water and different alkanes, Journal of colloid and interface science, 410 (2013) 181-187.
[5] B.v. Szyszkowski, Experimental studies on capillary properties of aqueous solutions fatty acids, Z. Phys. Chem, 64 (1908) 385-414.
[6] I. Langmuir, The constitution and fundamental properties of solids and liquids. II. Liquids. 1, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 39(9) (1917) 1848-1906.
[7] A. Frumkin, Surface tension curves of higher fatty acids and the equation of condition of the surface layer, Z. phys. Chem, 116 (1925) 466-484.
[8] E.H. Lucassen-Reynders, Anionic surfactants: Physical chemistry of surfactant action, Marcel Dekker, 1981.
[9] D.A. Cadenhead, J.F. Danielli, Progress in surface and membrane science, Elsevier, 2016.
[10] M.J. Rosen, D.S. Murphy, Effect of the nonaqueous phase on interfacial properties of surfactants. 2. Individual and mixed nonionic surfactants in hydrocarbon/water systems, Langmuir, 7(11) (1991) 2630-2635.
[11] V. Fainerman, S. Zholob, R. Miller, Adsorption kinetics of oxyethylated polyglycol ethers at the water-nonane interface, Langmuir, 13(2) (1997) 283-289.
[12] V. Fainerman, A. Makievski, R. Miller, Surfactant adsorption isotherms considering molecular reorientation or aggregation at liquid/fluid interfaces, Reviews in Chemical Engineering, 14(6) (1998) 373-407.
[13] V. Kalinin, C. Radke, An ion-binding model for ionic surfactant adsorption at aqueous-fluid interfaces, Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects, 114 (1996) 337-350.
[14] A. Bahramian, A. Zarbakhsh, Interfacial equation of state for ionized surfactants at oil/water interfaces, Soft matter, 11(32) (2015) 6482-6491.
[15] J. Butler, The thermodynamics of the surfaces of solutions, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Containing Papers of a Mathematical and Physical Character, 135(827) (1932) 348-375.
[16] V. Fainerman, E. Lucassen-Reynders, Adsorption of single and mixed ionic surfactants at fluid interfaces, Advances in colloid and interface science, 96(1) (2002) 295-323.
[17] J.M. Prausnitz, R.N. Lichtenthaler, E.G. de Azevedo, Molecular thermodynamics of fluid-phase equilibria, Pearson Education, 1998.
[18] M.W. Vaughn, J.C. Slattery, A surface equation of state for a partially soluble ionized surfactant, Journal of colloid and interface science, 195(1) (1997) 1-7.
[19] E. Lucassen-Reynders, Surface equation of state for ionized surfactants, The Journal of Physical Chemistry, 70(6) (1966) 1777-1785.
[20] R.A. Robinson, R.H. Stokes, Electrolyte solutions, Courier Corporation, 2002.
[21] A. Zarbakhsh, J. Webster, J. Eames, Structural Studies of Surfactants at the Oil− Water Interface by Neutron Reflectometery†, Langmuir, 25(7) (2009) 3953-3956.
[22] N. Mucic, A. Javadi, N. Kovalchuk, E. Aksenenko, R. Miller, Dynamics of interfacial layers—experimental feasibilities of adsorption kinetics and dilational rheology, Advances in colloid and interface science, 168(1) (2011) 167-178.
Amirkabir Journal of Mechanical Engineering
Volume 50, Issue 2
July and August 2018
Pages 437-444

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics