Influence of Drop Growth Rate and Size on the Interfacial Tension of Triton X-100 Solutions as a Function of Pressure and Temperature

Abstract

The interfacial tension (IFT) between decane and aqueous solutions of Triton X-100 was determined by the pendant-drop technique, and the effects of the temperature, pressure, surfactant concentration, droplet growth rate, and size were studied. Three aqueous solutions of surfactant were used (0.48×10 −4 mol · L −1 , 0.96×10 −4 mol·L −1 , 1.43×10 −4 mol·L −1 ), and the experiments were performed at (2, 3, and 4) MPa and at (30, 40, and 50) • C. As expected, the alkane drop changed its shape, and the IFT of the system decreased as the surfactant adsorbed onto the interface, until the drop finally separates from the capillary, in a maximum time of 2120 s. According to the results, the influence of temperature on the IFT is inversely proportional to the surfactant concentration, because when the concentration increases, the temperature has little effect on it. It was also noticed that the effect of pressure on the IFT at lower surfactant concentrations is less significant than at higher concentrations. When the temperature decreases, the pressure reduces its effect on the IFT, as occurs with systems at 30 • C. The droplet growth rate does not significantly affect the IFT value, while its size does; therefore, when transient studies are carried out, it is required to control the drop size.

Effect of Temperature on the Dynamic Properties of Mixed Surfactant Adsorbed Layers at the Water/Hexane Interface under Low-Gravity Conditions

“…Moreover, one of them is ionic, and therefore charge effects can also come into play. It should be noted that, in the literature, an interfacial tension increase with the temperature is sometimes reported for liquid/liquid systems containing species (surfactants, nano-particles, impurities) capable of adsorbing at the interface [10,[42][43][44][45][46][47][48]. A non-monotonic variation of the equilibrium surface tension at the air/liquid interface with an increasing temperature was also observed for aqueous solutions of fatty alcohols [49][50][51].…”

“…However, the molecular mechanisms leading to the increase of interfacial tension with temperature can be different for each particular case and are not always obvious. This can be, in particular, surface or bulk rearrangements [46,49], surfactant aggregation in either of the contacting liquids [10,44], a temperature effect on the surfactants' solubility (and, therefore, on their partition coefficients) [45] or the modification of molecular interactions between the components at the interface [43,47,48]. These factors can influence the form of the equation of state of the adsorption layer and the adsorption isotherms, Equations (1) and (2), or the parameters in these equations.…”

Experimental Investigation of Noble Viscoelastic Surfactant and Chelating Agent for Heavy Oil Enhanced Oil Recovery in High‐Pressure–High‐Temperature Carbonate Reservoirs

“…The nonlinearity with IFT reduction through surfactants does exist (Farid Ibrahim and Nasr‐El‐Din, 2019). Decreasing trend of IFT was due to the weakening of intermolecular forces at the oil/VES interface, while increasing trend of IFT at high temperatures was due to inverse temperature effect on the solubility of surfactants (Miquilena et al, 2010). Conventionally, temperature has great impact on the IFT response.…”