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Partition of n-Butanol Among Phases and Solubilization Ability of Winsor type III Microemulsions

  • Original Article
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Journal of Surfactants and Detergents

Abstract

The partition of n-butanol in Winsor type III (W-III) microemulsions was investigated in this work. Three kinds of anionic surfactants (sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), sodium dodecyl sulfonate (DSS), and sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate (SDBS)) and two kinds of anionic/cationic surfactant mixtures (SDS/octadecyl trimethyl ammonium chloride (OTAC) mixtures and DSS/OTAC mixtures) were studied. Internal standard gas chromatography was employed in n-butanol content analysis. The results showed that no water exists in the excess oil (EO) phase and no oil exists in the excess water (EW) phase. For the W-III microemulsions obtained by salinity scanning, relatively constant n-butanol content in the EO (11–12 v%) and EW (1–4 v%) was found under different salinities. Accurate measurement of n-butanol content in each phase is important for those systems having low solubilization ability. For the W-III microemulsions prepared using SDS/OTAC surfactant mixture, the percentage of n-butanol distributed into the interfacial layer decreased while the fraction of n-butanol in the interfacial layer first increased sharply and then tended to be stable with the addition of n-butanol. For the different optimum W-III microemulsion systems tested, most of the surfactant-to-alcohol molar ratio data are near 1:3, but obvious deviation could be observed for some data. On the basis of the accurate measurement of n-butanol content in the EO and EW phases, the standard free energy, ΔG * o→in (T = 298.15 K) of n-butanol transferring from the EO phase to the interfacial region was calculated. The results show negative ΔG * o→in values. For microemulsions with the same components, n-butanol content is an important factor influencing the ΔG * o→in value, and a high absolute value of ΔG * o→in leads to high solubilization ability.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21106187), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (14CX05031A), and the project of Huangdao district (2014-1-49) for their financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil Processing, China University of Petroleum, West Changjiang Road 66#, Economic and Technological Development Zone, Qingdao, 266580, Shandong, People’s Republic of China

    Huie Liu, Zhanghui Wu, Jiange Jing, Jiankun Huang, Chuanqin Ding & Shuang Chen

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  1. Huie Liu
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Correspondence to Huie Liu.

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Liu, H., Wu, Z., Jing, J. et al. Partition of n-Butanol Among Phases and Solubilization Ability of Winsor type III Microemulsions. J Surfact Deterg 19, 713–724 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11743-016-1818-7

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