Solid-stabilised foams produced using a mixed surfactant system
Creators: name: Rajatanavin, Pajaree
Publisher: name: Swinburne
Year: 2024

description: Studies involving solids-stabilised foams have been limited and few have focused on the benefits of complex systems such as those involving mixtures of more than one surfactant. Little is known about the effectiveness of using mixed surfactant systems as foam stabilisers at the bulk level. The purpose of this project was to gain further understanding and insight into foam stability, on a bulk scale, in the absence, and in the presence, of solid colloidal particles, and for systems involving single or mixed surfactants. Foams were produced using sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS), dodecanoic acid (DA), or a mixture of both surfactants at varying molar ratios. The surface tension at a given concentration, the limiting surface tension (at high concentrations), the critical micelle concentration, foamability and foam stability were all significantly affected by the molar ratio of SDS to DA. The initial pH of mixed surfactant solutions played a role in the shift of surface tension and CMC. The higher pH values, the lower surface activity, therefore resulted in higher surface tension. At a given pH, however, the mixed surfactant solutions with higher molar ratio of SDS to DA appeared to have lower CMC. The foam stabilising ability of colloidal dispersions of four hydrous metal oxides, namely hydrous iron oxide (formed by hydrolysis of Fe(III) solutions and referred to as HFO), hydrous zinc oxide (formed by hydrolysis of Zn(II) solutions and referred to as HZO), hydrous chromium oxide (formed by hydrolysis of Cr(III) solutions and referred to as HCO), and hydrous nickel oxide (formed by hydrolysis of Ni(II) solutions and referred to as HNO) were studied at varying concentrations. Generally foam stability increased as the solid concentration increased. Foams stabilised by HNO were found to be the most stable. Foams stabilised by HFO were found to be unstable regardless of the solid concentration. It is believed that the instability of such foams is primarily due to the large aggregated size of HFO flocs. The aggregate size of hydrous metal oxides was influenced by the concentration of NaOH used to hydrolyse the metal ion solution, and by sonication treatment immediately following solid formation. However, the final pH of the colloidal dispersions did not significantly change the aggregate size. Solids stabilised foams are believed to be highly dependent on the state of hydrophobicity of the solids used, and this is in turn controlled by adjustment of the pH dependent surface charge and potential. Electrophoretic mobility is a commonly used tool to probe the potential near the surface and was used in this thesis to determine the affect of surfactant adsorption (particularly from solutions containing mixtures of SDS and DA) on surface properties of the solids. The electrophoretic mobility of all hydrous metal oxide aggregates decreased as the concentration of SDS/DA increased. Specific adsorption was evident in all cases and resulted in charge reversal for most cases. Electrophoretic mobility data for surfactant adsorption, as a function of total surfactant concentration, was consistent with a three-stage model of surfactant adsorption involving (1) electrostatic adsorption, (2) cooperative adsorption and (3) surface saturation. The influence of surfactant adsorption on electrophoretic mobility was found to be consistent with models requiring the stabilising solids to be in a controlled state of flocculation, where the zeta potential (as probed by electrophoretic mobility) must be sufficiently high to prevent total flocculation of the solid and thus collapse of the foam, but sufficiently low that the solids have some degree of hydrophobicity such that they prefer to be only partially wetted (and thus reside at the air/water interface). The total percentage adsorption of SDS/DA surfactant mixtures on both hydrous iron oxide and hydrous nickel oxide was found to be independent of time. However, the proportion of adsorption due to SDS and DA was dependent on time. Moreover, the initial and final ratio of SDS to DA adsorption did not reflect their ratio in solution. SDS adsorbed, initially, to a greater extent that would be predicted from its solution concentration, but this trend was reversed after a period of time.