Anomalous thickness variation of the foam films stabilized by weak non-ionic surfactants

Abstract

The constant thickness ( H) of metastable free films of various non-ionic surfactant solutions was measured at surfactant concentrations less than the critical micelle concentrations or solubility limits with fixed 5 × 10 - 5 M sodium chloride (NaCl) serving as the background electrolyte. The surfactants include n-pentanol, n-octanol, methyl isobutyl carbinol (MIBC), polypropylene glycol (PPG-400), tetraethylene glycol monooctyl ether (C 8E 4), and tetraethylene glycol monodecyl ether ( C 10 E 4 ). H was interferometrically measured. For each surfactant in this study, the H-versus-surfactant-concentration curve finds a peak at a concentration around 5 × 10 - 6 –1 × 10 - 5 M and a valley at a higher concentration. The measured H values were compared to those predicted from the Derjaguin–Landau–Verwey–Overbeek (DLVO) theory, which considers solely the contribution from electrostatic double-layer repulsion with van der Waals attraction being neglected in the present work. In determining the double-layer repulsion, the ionic strength was determined from the electrolytic conductivity measurement of the film-forming solutions and the surface potential was estimated from the ζ -potential measurement of air bubbles. It was found that the DLVO theory failed to explain the thickness variance with surfactant concentration, implying that additional non-DLVO attractive forces might be required to explain the experimental results. Finally, the possible origins of these attractive forces were discussed.