Effects of the chemical structure of surfactants on the stability of naphthenic oil-based metalworking fluids

In this study, various nonionic surfactants (NS) with different ethylene oxide (EO) numbers and tail lengths and its binary blends with anionic surfactants (AS) were used as emulsifiers for naphthenic oil to form the microemulsion metalworking fluids (MWFs), and the effects of them on the stability of the emulsion system were investigated by formulation triangle method. The results indicated that binary complex surfactants of NS and AS as emulsifiers exhibited better emulsifying effect than that of single NS. NS with different EO numbers and tail lengths presented various emulsifying effects. NS (EO = 10) exhibited the greatest number of stable formulations, especially the TX-10, but no linear relationship existed between the number of stable formulations and the tail length of NS. In addition, aromatic primary alcohol ethoxylate (APAE) series surfactants containing benzene groups similar to the cycloalkanes in the naphthenic oil so that presented the best emulsifying affect and the greatest number of stable formulations. The co-surfactant of sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate (SDBS) binary blends with NS exerted the best synergistic effect, and the stable formulations numbers were ranged from 5 to 7, next sodium stearate (SS) comes last followed by sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS-1) and sodium dodecyl sulfonate (SDS-2). (C) 2019 Chinese Chemical Society and Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.