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Investigation on the Properties of Aqueous Foams Stabilized by Cetyltrimethylammonium Bromide in Terms of Free Drainage and Bubble Size
Author(s) -
Wang Junchao,
Cao Yijun,
Li Guosheng,
Li Shulei,
Wang Yingwei,
Ma Zilong,
Xing Yaowen
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of surfactants and detergents
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.349
H-Index - 48
eISSN - 1558-9293
pISSN - 1097-3958
DOI - 10.1002/jsde.12244
Subject(s) - bubble , bromide , chemistry , critical micelle concentration , pulmonary surfactant , micelle , aqueous solution , chemical engineering , foam fractionation , chromatography , organic chemistry , mechanics , physics , engineering , biochemistry
Abstract Although foams stabilized by surfactants have been the subject of massive investigations and great achievements were made over the past few years, many questions concerning their properties are still not well understood. The aim of this study is to examine the effect of the cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) concentration on the foam properties and illustrate the interaction between liquid drainage and bubble size evolution. Experiments were carried out at varying CTAB concentrations ranging from 0.1 to 5.0 times the critical micelle concentration (CMC), where the variation of the liquid content of foam and bubble size was simultaneously determined using a commercially available FoamScan device. The results showed that the foam properties (both foamability and foam stability) of CTAB were largely dependent on the surfactant concentration when concentrations c < CMC but this effect did not scale linearly with concentration. When c ≥ CMC, both foamablity and foam stability were nearly concentration independent, while the latter showed a small decrease due to the formation of micelles. In addition, the correlation between free drainage and bubble size evolution indicated that the increase of bubble size could indeed enhance the foam drainage.