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Updated: Jun 28, 2026

Extraction and Characterization of Surfactants from Atmospheric Aerosols
Published on: April 21, 2017
Extractive spectrophotometric determination of non-ionic surfactants in water
1Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Okayama University, Tsushima-naka 3-1-1, Okayama 700, Japan.
Abstract:
The solvent extraction of non-ionic surfactants with potassium chloride and tetrabromophenolphthalein ethyl ester potassium salt has been studied, and a method developed for determining trace amounts of non-ionic surfactants in water spectrophotometrically. Various non-ionic surfactants of general type RO(CH(2)CH(2)O)(n)H (where R is an alkyl or alkylphenyl group and n is the number-average degree of polymerization) are extracted quantitatively into o-dichlorobenzene from the water sample, and reacted in the organic phase with tetrabromophenolphthalein ethyl ester potassium salt to give a coloured product, the absorbance of which is measured at 620 nm.
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