AbstractThe effect of Na2CO3 on the cloud point in Na2CO3/surfactant/brine was investigated using two series of nonionic surfactants, C13EOx and C17EOx. The cloud point, Tcp, was found to decrease linearly with increasing Na2CO3 concentration. This was attributed to Na+ and particularly to CO32−salting‐out effect. The slope a = dTcp/d[Na2CO3] became more and more negative as the degree of ethoxylation is increased, suggesting that the higher the number of ethylene oxide (EO) groups the stronger is the cloud point depression for a given increment in Na+and CO32−ions in solution. This was also illustrated by the linear variation of ΔTcp = Tcp,0 − Tcp,[Na2CO3] with the surfactant degree of ethoxylation.
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