Studies on the Interaction Between Polyethylene Oxide and Cationic Gemini/Conventional Surfactants

Abstract

The interactions of two gemini surfactants (16-s-16, s = 5, 6) and their conventional counterpart cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) in water and in aqueous solutions of polyethylene oxide (PEO, molecular weight = 100,000) having concentrations of 0.1–0.75 wt.% have been investigated at different temperatures using surface tension, viscosity and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) techniques. The results indicate that there is interaction between PEO and CTAB/gemini surfactants. The driving force which is responsible for the interaction is supposed to be the minimization of interfacial force between the non-polar polymer parts and the solvent water by association. It is observed that critical micellization concentration (cmc) values increase with temperature. It was observed that cmc values for geminis are very small as compared to CTAB. Viscosity increases with increase in polymer concentration and is higher in case of geminis. Dense micellar arrangement is seen for geminis than cationic CTAB as evident from SEM images. The result shows that the interaction of geminis is much higher than its conventional surfactant with PEO.

Keywords:

• Polyethylene oxide
• Cationic surfactants
• Gemini surfactants
• Scanning electron microscopy
• micellar

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported in part by a grant from the TEQUIP-II Project, Grant number SBI 3196430480, Z.H College of Engineering & Technology, AMU Aligarh.