Abstract
Surfactants are widely utilized in various industries, but their amphiphilic nature poses an obstacle to the complete recycling of them from water or oil phases. It is a challenge to design a surfactant that has both good emulsification performance and aqueous-phase recyclable properties. In this paper, we report a novel aqueous-phase recyclable surfactant with multi-headgroups (C3H7-NH (C10COONa)2, di-UAPAba). Di-UAPAba can stabilize oil-in-water emulsions alone at pH ≥ 9 (≥0.3 mM), exhibiting excellent emulsification ability. After adding a trace amount of silica nanoparticles, CO2 switchable oil-in-dispersion emulsions were formed by di-UAPAba at extremely low concentrations (0.01 mM). Reversible demulsification/emulsification was achieved upon CO2/N2 trigger. Moreover, di-UAPAba can be converted into zwitterionic di-UAPAza by bubbling CO2, which entirely enters the aqueous phase with no surfactant residual in the oil phase. Consequently, the emulsions were reformed after di-UAPAba was completely recovered from the aqueous phase. The interfacial behavior of the surfactant and its aqueous recyclable mechanism was analyzed by molecular dynamics simulation. This study introduces a new type of aqueous-recyclable surfactants that can be beneficial in temporary emulsions for oil-soluble products where demulsification is necessary, such as in crude oil production, oil transportation, and multi-phase catalysis.
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