Liquid-crystalline and microemulsion phase behavior in alcohol-free Aerosol-OT/oil/brine systems

Abstract

The phase behavior of systems containing the pure anionic surfactant Aerosol OT or sodium bis(2-ethylhexyl) sulfosuccinate was studied as a function of salt concentration, surfactant concentration, alkane carbon number, and water-to-oil ratio. Since the hydrophilic and lipophilic properties of Aerosol OT are nearly balanced, the surfactant forms microemulsions with water and oil in the absence of cosurfactant, allowing for simplified representation of phase behavior. In particular, this property aided in the understanding of transitions between the aqueous surfactant phase behavior and the well-studied oil-rich microemulsion regime. With the addition of salt to dilute alcohol-free surfactant-water mixtures, transitions in the liquid-crystalline phases similar to those seen previously for systems containing petroleum sulfonates and other anionic surfactants with alcohol cosurfactants were found. When hydrocarbons of various chain lengths were equilibrated with the aqueous surfactant solutions, again behavior similar to that of anionic surfactants with alcohol cosurfactants was observed. Pseudoternary diagrams of surfactant-brine-oil were constructed at various brine salinities with n-dodecane as the oil. The assumption that brine acts as a pseudocomponent was found to work best at salinities well below and well above the optimum and at low surfactant concentrations. In any case, the results provide extensive information on phase behavior ofmore » a four-component system containing a pure anionic surfactant, a pure hydrocarbon, and sodium chloride brine over a region of considerable interest for enhanced oil recovery and other applications.« less