Evaluation of adsorption of nonionic surfactants blend at water/oil interfaces

ABSTRACT

The inherent biocompatibility of Span and Tween surfactants makes them an important class of nonionic emulsifiers that are employed extensively in emulsion and foam stabilization. The adsorption of Span-Tween blend at water/oil surface of emulsion has been investigated using a population balance model for the first time. Destability of emulsion was modeled by considering sedimentation, coalescence and interfacial coalescence terms in population balance equation (PBE). The terms of coalescence efficiency and interfacial coalescence time were considered as a function of surface coverage of droplets by surfactant molecules. The surface coverage at different surfactant concentrations was determined by minimization of difference between the model predictions and experimental average droplet sizes. After optimization, the surface coverage outputs were fitted with different adsorption isotherms to evaluate the adsorption behavior of Span-Tween surfactants blend at water/oil surface. The results show that Freundlich isotherm can predict the adsorption behavior of closer to the experimental observation. Moreover, fitted parameters imply the favorable adsorption of Span-Tween blend at water/oil interface.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS:

• Adsorption isotherm
• population balance equation
• surfactant coverage
• water-in-oil emulsion

Acknowledgments

The author express sincere thanks to Prof. Dongsheng Wen for his supports and valuable guidance.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by European Research Council Consolidator Grant (Grant number: 648375).