Surfactants and their mixtures can drastically change the interfacial properties and hence are used in many industrial processes such as dispersion/flocculation, flotation, emulsification, corrosion inhibition, cosmetics, drug delivery, chemical mechanical polishing, enhanced oil recovery, and nanolithography. A review of studies on adsorption of single surfactant as well as mixtures of various...

Alternative methods for determining the critical micelle concentration (cmc) are investigated using canonical and grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations of a lattice surfactant model. A common measure of the cmc is the "free" (unassociated) surfactant concentration in the presence of micellar aggregates. Many prior simulations of micellizing systems have observed a decrease in the free surfact...

BACKGROUND Surfactant-containing water sprays are commonly used in coal mines to collect dust. This study investigates the dust collection performance of different surfactant types for a range of coal dust particle sizes and charges. METHODS Bituminous coal dust aerosol was generated in a wind tunnel. The charge of the aerosol was either left unaltered, charge-neutralized with a neutralizer, ...

Synergy and antagonism between sugar-based surfactants, a group of environmentally benign surfactants, and cationic surfactants and nonionic ethoxylated surfactants have been investigated in this study with solids which adsorbs only one or other when presented alone. Sugar-based n-dodecyl-β-D-maltoside (DM) does not adsorb on silica by itself. However, in mixtures with cationic dodecyltrimethyl...

The biodegradation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) often is limited by low water solubility and dissolution rate. Nonionic surfactants and sodium dodecyl sulfate increased the concentration of PAH in the water phase because of solubilization. The degradation of PAH was inhibited by sodium dodecyl sulfate because this surfactant was preferred as a growth substrate. Growth of mixed cult...

The effect of 12 surfactants on aflatoxin production, growth, and conidial germination by the fungus Aspergillus flavus is reported. Five nonionic surfactants, Triton X-100, Tergitol NP-7, Tergitol NP-10, polyoxyethylene (POE) 10 lauryl ether, and Latron AG-98, reduced aflatoxin production by 96 to 99% at 1% (wt/vol). Colony growth was restricted by the five nonionic surfactants at this concent...

The impact of the nonionic surfactant, dodecyl triethyleneglycol ether (C(12)E(3)) on the solution microstructure of the dialkyl chain cationic surfactant, dihexadecyl dimethyl ammonium bromide, (DHDAB) has been investigated. The variation in solution microstructure has been studied using a combination of small angle neutron scattering, ultra small angle neutron scattering, optical texture and ...

The solution and interfacial behavior of surfactant mixtures was investigated using a cationic surfactant, tetradecyl trimethyl ammonium chloride (TTAC), and a nonionic surfactant, pentadecylethoxylated nonyl phenol (NP-15), with alumina as the substrate. The cationic TTAC adsorbed at the alumina-water interface as a result of electrostatic attraction at pH approximately 10 whereas the nonionic...

A systematic experimental study of the effect of several factors on the mean drop diameter, d32, during emulsification, is performed with soybean oil-in-water emulsions. These factors are (1) type of used emulsifier; (2) emulsifier concentration, CS; and (3) ionic strength of the aqueous solution. Three different types of emulsifier, anionic (sodium dodecyl sulfate, SDS), nonionic (polyoxyethyl...

While retaining its lamellar liquid crystal phase, K4Nb6O17 nanosheets were used as a template to sandwich and stabilize an alkylpoly(ethylene oxide) nonionic surfactant-water system showing monodomain (lamella) formation within the inorganic niobate sheets that appears to be not dependent on the surfactant liquid crystalline state in solution but more its concentration.