Adsorption of Alkyltrimethylammonium Bromides at Water/Alkane Interfaces: Competitive Adsorption of Alkanes and Surfactants

The adsorption of members of the homologous series of alkyl trimethylammonium bromides (C(n)TAB) is studied at water/alkane interfaces by drop profile analysis tensiometry. The results are discussed in terms of a competitive adsorption process of alkane and surfactant molecules. A thermodynamic model, derived originally for the adsorption of surfactant mixtures, is adapted such that it describes a competitive adsorption of the surfactant molecules from the aqueous phase and alkane molecules from the oil phase. This new model involves the interspecies attraction coefficient, which mutually increases the adsorption activities of the alkane and C(n)TAB. The effects of the alkyl chain length n of C(n)TABs and the influence of the number of C atoms in the alkane chain are discussed, and the physical quantities are compared to those determined at the aqueous solution/air interface. The new theoretical model for aqueous solution/oil interfaces is also compared to a theory that does not consider the adsorption of alkane. The proposed new model demonstrates good agreement with the experimental data.