Surface tension of aqueous solutions of large organic salts: Tetrabutylammonium acetate solutions

Abstract

Aqueous solutions of simple ionic salts such as NaCl and NaBr have higher surface tensions compared to that of pure water and the surface tension of the solution increases with the increasing concentration of the salt. In contrast, the aqueous solutions of the ion sodium acetate (NaAc), which has an anion with both hydrophilic and hydrophobic parts, have a surface tension less than that of pure water, with the surface tension decreasing with salt concentration. The presence of large cations in the salt may change these trends. In this work, the interfacial tension of aqueous solutions of the organic ionic salt tetrabutylammonium acetate (TBAAc) is measured and compared with that of tetrabutylammonium bromide (TBAB). The surface tension of TBAAc aqueous solutions with mole fractions ranging from 0.00417 to 0.04191 were measured for temperatures ranging from 288.2 to 308.2 K and compared with the surface tension of TBAB solutions at similar concentrations. The experimental results showed that the interfacial tensions of TBAAc and TBAB aqueous solutions decreased with increasing concentration, leveling at around 0.04 mol fraction. At each concentration, the interfacial tensions of the TBAAc solutions were larger than those of the TBAB solutions. For the TBAAc and TBAB solutions, the surface excess concentrations of the salts in the solutions are calculated. The impact of these results structures and properties of these solutions are discussed.