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Updated: Aug 13, 2026

Studying Surfactant Effects on Hydrate Crystallization at Oil-Water Interfaces Using a Low-Cost Integrated Modular Peltier Device
Published on: March 18, 2020
Effects of nonionic surfactant C12E5 on the cooperative dynamics of water
Simon Schrödle1, Glenn Hefter, Werner Kunz
1Institut für Physikalische und Theoretische Chemie, Universität Regensburg, D-93040 Regensburg, Germany.
Abstract:
A dielectric relaxation study of binary mixtures of nonionic surfactant C12E5 + water has been made as a function of temperature in the isotropic micellar, lamellar, and hexagonal regions of the phase diagram. Two dielectric dispersion steps were found and could be assigned to the intermolecular cooperative dynamics of water at the micellar interface and in the bulk water domains. A quantitative analysis is given. The relaxation amplitudes were used to determine effective hydration numbers. The activation energies of water relaxation were calculated from the relaxation times. The data indicate weaker surfactant-water and water-water interactions near the micellar interface compared to those of bulk liquid water. Further analysis revealed the presence of water clusters large enough to show a cooperative relaxation mode even at high surfactant concentrations. However, the relaxation time of this mode is larger compared to that of pure water. This points out the importance of confinement effects on water dynamics.
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