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Transfer of surface‐active agents across a liquid‐liquid interface
Author(s) -
England Dennis C.,
Berg John C.
Publication year - 1971
Publication title -
aiche journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.958
H-Index - 167
eISSN - 1547-5905
pISSN - 0001-1541
DOI - 10.1002/aic.690170216
Subject(s) - desorption , surface tension , adsorption , chemistry , mass transfer , diffusion , liquid liquid , chemical engineering , laminar flow , chromatography , thermodynamics , organic chemistry , physics , engineering
Analytical solutions are obtained for the transfer of an adsorbing solute across a liquid‐liquid interface taking into account the effects of molecular diffusion in both bulk phases, adsorptive accumulation at the interface, and energy barriers to adsorption and/or desorption. These solutions show that while adsorptive accumulation alone affects the transfer rate but little, the presence of an adsorption or desorption barrier can significantly affect the bulk concentration profiles and decrease the mass transfer rate. The presence of a desorption barrier is shown to cause the dynamic interfacial tension to pass through a minimum below the steady state value. For some systems it is conceivable that the interfacial tension minimum would be sufficiently low that a slight agitation would result in spontaneous emulsification. Dynamic interfacial tension data for oil‐water systems with interface ages from 0.05 to 1.5 sec. are obtained using a laminar contracting liquid jet. The data indicate the presence of a small net desorption barrier to the transfer of normal and isobutyric acids from oil to water and large barriers to both the adsorption and desorption of 1,5 pentanediol.