Formation of Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate Foams by Compression of Soft Porous Material

Abstract

AbstractInteraction of foams with porous materials is frequently observed in industry and nature. An example is the interaction of foam of a cleaning product with a sponge, which has been investigated previously in Johnson et al., Colloids Surfaces A, 2019, 579, June, p. 123569 with commercial dishwashing solution using a compression device with a sponge saturated with a surfactant solution. The purpose of this study is to investigate the same process using sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), which has the same critical micelle concentration (CMC) as the commercial surfactant used. It is found that SDS concentration 10 times the CMC is the optimum concentration for foam formation. Any further increase in concentration above 10 CMC does not result in further increase of foam mass. Although the concentration of the surfactant solution was the most important parameter, temperature and pH of the surfactant also influenced the foam generation. Increasing the temperature resulted in decreasing the mass of foam generated and pH 7 was found as the optimal pH for foam generation.