Commercial Surfactants for Remediation-Methodology

Abstract

The sediment sample for the experiment was taken from the Tamar estuary which has been polluted by the mining and industrial discharge. Only less than 63-μm fraction of the sediment was used. The sample was properly filtered, digested and centrifuge for further experiments. Five different types of surfactants have been used for the experiment, four were the commercial surfactant and one was synthesized in the laboratory that mimics the digestive fluid found in the deposit feeders like Arenicola Marina. These different type of surfactants are Hexadecyltrimethylammonium (HDTMA-Br) cationic, Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate (SDS) ≥ 9% anionic, Taurocholic acid, Sodium salt hydrate ≥ 97% anionic, Triton X-100 (TX-100) non-ionic, and Synthesized N-glycino 2,6-dimethylheptanamide anionic. The samples were stored with the different surfactant at the different concentrations of surfactants. The sub-sample was collected at the different interval of time and their pH was measured. The collected sub-sample was centrifuge and kept it for further analysis.