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Conductivity Measurements as a Method for Studying Ionic Technical Grade Surfactants

  • E. Carey , S. R. Patil and C. Stubenrauch
Published/Copyright: April 2, 2013
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Tenside Surfactants Detergents
From the journal Tenside Surfactants Detergents Volume 45 Issue 3

Abstract

The critical micellar concentrations (cmc) of cationic alkyltrimethylammonium bromides (C10TAB – C16TAB) and of anionic alkyl sulfates (SDS, technical grade Sulfopon 12G and Sulfopon 1214G) were determined using specific conductivity and surface tension measurements. While the cationic surfactants were purified, the anionic surfactants were used as received. In the former case, surface tension and conductivity measurements lead to the same cmc values. In the latter case, measuring the specific conductivities (bulk property) proved to be superior compared to measuring the surface tensions (surface property) because the presence of highly surface active impurities creates a pronounced minimum in the surface tension isotherm, which makes it impossible to determine an accurate value for the cmc. On the other hand, these impurities do not influence the conductivities, i. e. that the conductivities can be used to determine cmc values of impure and technical grade ionic surfactants, respectively. Moreover, an evaluation of the specific conductivities allows for the determination of the degree of micelle ionization (α) of the ionic surfactant solutions and thus provides additional useful information.

Kurzfassung

Um die kritischen Mizellbildungskonzentrationen (cmc) kationischer Alkyltrimethylammoniumbromide (C10TAB – C16TAB) sowie anionischer Alkylsulfate (SDS, technisches Sulfopon 12G und Sulfopon 1214G) zu bestimmen, wurden spezifische Leitfähigkeiten sowie Oberflächenspannungen gemessen. Die kationischen Tenside sind gereinigt worden, während die anionischen nicht weiter aufgearbeitet wurden. Es zeigte sich im Falle der CnTAB Reihe, dass beide Messmethoden zum gleichen Ergebnis führen. Bei den anionischen Tensiden konnte mittels Oberflächenspannungen keine Aussage über die cmc gemacht werden, da das durch Verunreinigungen verursachte Minimum ein Auswerten der Kurven unmöglich macht. Hingegen lieferten Leitfähigkeitsmessungen die gewünschten cmc-Werte. Darüber hinaus kann aus den Leitfähigkeitsmessungen der Dissoziationsgrad der Mizellen bestimmt werden. Nicht nur wegen der aussagekräftigeren Ergebnisse, sondern auch wegen des geringen experimentellen Aufwands sind Leitfähigkeitsmessungen das optimale Werkzeug, um sowohl reine als auch technische ionische Tenside zu untersuchen.

Key words:: Ionic technical grade surfactant; specific conductivity; surface tension; critical micelle concentration; degree of micelle ionization
Stichwörter:: Technische ionische Tenside; spezifische Leitfähigkeit; Oberflächenspannung; kritische Mizellbildungskonzentration; Dissoziationsgrad von Mizellen
∗ Enda Carey, University College Dublin, School of Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland, Tel.: +353-1-716-1691, Fax: +353-1-716-1177. E-mail:

Enda Carey studied chemical engineering at University College Dublin (Ireland) and received his B. E. in 2006. Since 2007, he is pursuing Ph. D at the School of Chemical & Bioprocess Engineering, University College Dublin (Ireland).

Dr. Sandeep R. Patil studied chemistry at the M. S. University of Baroda (India) and received his Ph. D in Chemistry in 2005. Thereafter, he did post doctoral research for a year at Université Pierre et Marie Curie (France). Since September 2006, he is a post doctoral researcher at the School of Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering, University College Dublin (Ireland).

Dr. habil. Cosima Stubenrauch studied chemistry at the universities of Münster and Freiburg (Germany) and received her Ph. D in Physical Chemistry at the TU Berlin (Germany) in 1997. After a postdoctoral year at the Université Paris Sud (France), she worked as an associate researcher and lecturer at the Institute of Physical Chemistry at the University of Cologne (Germany) from 1999–2004. Since 2005 she has a position at the University College Dublin (Ireland).

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Received: 2007-12-21
Published Online: 2013-04-02
Published in Print: 2008-05-01

© 2008, Carl Hanser Publisher, Munich

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https://doi.org/10.3139/113.100368
Keywords for this article
Ionic technical grade surfactant; specific conductivity; surface tension; critical micelle concentration; degree of micelle ionization

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Contents/Inhalt
  2. Contents
  3. Abstracts
  4. Abstracts
  5. Detergent Ingredient
  6. Quantitative Determination of Tetraacetylethylenediamine in Laundry Powder by FTIR Spectrometry Using Partial Least Squares Algorithm
  7. Physical Chemistry
  8. Conductivity Measurements as a Method for Studying Ionic Technical Grade Surfactants
  9. Electrocatalytic Hydrogenation and Hydrogenolysis of Aromatic Halides by Raney Nickel in the Presence of Different Surfactants
  10. Phase Separation Study of a Surface-Active Drug, Promazine Hydrochloride, in Presence of Surfactants and Ureas
  11. Surface Activity of Newly Nonionic Surfactants at Air/Water Interface and their Interaction with Clay and Teflon
  12. Review Article
  13. 50 Years of Environmental Monitoring at Henkel
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